styled-components vs emotion vs polished vs styled-system
CSS-in-JS Libraries
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CSS-in-JS Libraries

CSS-in-JS libraries allow developers to write CSS styles directly within JavaScript files, enabling dynamic styling based on component state and props. This approach enhances the maintainability and scalability of styles in modern web applications. These libraries often support features like theming, scoped styles, and server-side rendering, making them suitable for complex applications that require a high degree of customization and flexibility in styling.

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styled-components10,035,65541,0212.02 MB1010 days agoMIT
emotion790,488---6 years agoMIT
polished07,6602.8 MB332 years agoMIT
styled-system0---6 years agoMIT

Feature Comparison: styled-components vs emotion vs polished vs styled-system

Dynamic Styling

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components supports dynamic styling through props, enabling developers to create styles that change based on component state. This feature is particularly useful for building interactive UI components that respond to user actions.

  • emotion:

    Emotion excels in dynamic styling, allowing styles to be defined based on component props and state. This enables developers to create highly interactive and responsive components that adapt to user interactions seamlessly.

  • polished:

    Polished enhances existing CSS-in-JS libraries by providing utility functions that simplify the creation of dynamic styles. It allows developers to easily manipulate styles based on conditions, making it easier to implement responsive designs.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System focuses on responsive design and theming, allowing developers to create dynamic styles that adjust based on screen size and design tokens. It provides a powerful API for building responsive components.

Theming Support

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components has robust theming support, enabling developers to define a theme object and use it within styled components. This feature promotes consistency and makes it easier to manage styles across large applications.

  • emotion:

    Emotion provides built-in theming support, allowing developers to define a theme and access it throughout their application. This feature simplifies the process of maintaining consistent styles across components.

  • polished:

    Polished does not provide theming support directly, but it can be used alongside other libraries that do. It enhances the theming capabilities of existing solutions by providing utility functions for common styling tasks.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System is designed with theming in mind, allowing developers to create a design system with reusable style tokens. This makes it easy to maintain a consistent look and feel across an application.

Learning Curve

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components has a gentle learning curve, particularly for those familiar with React. Its component-based approach to styling is intuitive, making it easy to grasp for new users.

  • emotion:

    Emotion has a moderate learning curve, especially for developers familiar with CSS-in-JS concepts. Its flexibility in syntax (CSS prop and styled components) allows for a smooth transition for those coming from traditional CSS.

  • polished:

    Polished is relatively easy to learn, especially for developers already using a CSS-in-JS library. Its utility-first approach makes it intuitive to use, as it provides straightforward functions for common styling tasks.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System may have a steeper learning curve due to its focus on responsive design and theming. However, once understood, it offers powerful tools for building scalable design systems.

Performance

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components has made significant improvements in performance, particularly with its latest versions. It uses a unique approach to style injection that minimizes re-renders and optimizes the rendering process.

  • emotion:

    Emotion is optimized for performance, using a highly efficient runtime that minimizes the overhead of style injection. It ensures that styles are only applied when necessary, improving rendering speed.

  • polished:

    Polished adds minimal overhead to your styles, as it primarily provides utility functions. Its impact on performance is negligible, making it a lightweight addition to your styling solution.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System is designed for performance, allowing developers to create responsive styles without sacrificing speed. Its focus on design tokens and utility functions helps maintain efficient rendering.

Community and Ecosystem

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components boasts a large and active community, with extensive documentation and a wealth of resources available. Its popularity ensures ongoing support and frequent updates.

  • emotion:

    Emotion has a growing community and is widely adopted in the React ecosystem. It benefits from a rich set of plugins and integrations, making it a versatile choice for modern applications.

  • polished:

    Polished is a smaller library with a focused purpose, but it integrates well with popular CSS-in-JS libraries. Its community is supportive, though not as large as others.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System has a dedicated community that focuses on building design systems. It is well-documented and integrates seamlessly with other libraries, making it a valuable tool for developers.

How to Choose: styled-components vs emotion vs polished vs styled-system

  • styled-components:

    Choose Styled-Components if you prefer a robust solution with a strong emphasis on component-based styling and theming. It is well-suited for larger applications where maintaining a consistent design system is crucial.

  • emotion:

    Choose Emotion if you need a highly performant library that supports both styled components and CSS prop syntax, allowing for flexibility in how styles are applied. It is ideal for projects that require dynamic styling based on props or state.

  • polished:

    Choose Polished if you are looking for a utility-first approach to styling that enhances your existing CSS-in-JS solution with a set of helpful functions for common CSS tasks. It is great for projects that need to simplify complex styles and improve code reusability.

  • styled-system:

    Choose Styled-System if you want to build a design system with a focus on responsive design and theming. It allows for rapid development of UI components that adapt to different screen sizes and design tokens.

Similar Npm Packages to styled-components

styled-components is a popular library for styling React applications using tagged template literals. It allows developers to write CSS directly within their JavaScript files, creating styled components that encapsulate styles and logic. This approach promotes modularity and reusability, making it easier to maintain styles across large applications. Styled-components also support theming, dynamic styling, and server-side rendering, making it a versatile choice for modern web development.

However, there are several alternatives to styled-components that also provide unique features and benefits:

  • emotion is a highly performant and flexible CSS-in-JS library that offers similar capabilities to styled-components. It provides a powerful styling solution with a focus on performance and developer experience. Emotion allows for both styled components and traditional CSS styles, giving developers the flexibility to choose their preferred method of styling. With features like theming, dynamic styles, and a small bundle size, Emotion is an excellent choice for those looking for a robust CSS-in-JS solution that can easily integrate with existing projects.

  • styled-jsx is a library developed by Vercel that provides scoped CSS for React components. It allows developers to write CSS directly within their components while ensuring that styles are scoped to the component, preventing style leakage. Styled-jsx is particularly useful for projects using Next.js, as it integrates seamlessly with its server-side rendering capabilities. If you are looking for a solution that offers scoped styles with minimal configuration and works well with Next.js, styled-jsx is a great option.

To explore how styled-components compares with emotion and styled-jsx, check out the comparison: Comparing emotion vs styled-components vs styled-jsx.

Similar Npm Packages to emotion

emotion is a popular CSS-in-JS library designed for styling React applications. It allows developers to write CSS styles with JavaScript, enabling dynamic styling based on component props and state. Emotion provides a powerful and flexible API, allowing for both styled components and traditional CSS styles, making it a versatile choice for modern web development. While Emotion is a robust solution for styling, there are several alternatives worth considering:

  • sass is a preprocessor scripting language that is interpreted or compiled into Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). It extends CSS with features like variables, nested rules, mixins, and functions, making it easier to write and maintain complex stylesheets. If you prefer a more traditional approach to styling and want to leverage the power of variables and nesting without the overhead of JavaScript, Sass is an excellent choice.
  • styled-components is another popular CSS-in-JS library that allows developers to write actual CSS code to style their components. It utilizes tagged template literals to style components, enabling a seamless integration of styles with JavaScript logic. Styled-components also support theming and dynamic styling, making it a great option for applications that require a consistent design system. If you appreciate the CSS-in-JS paradigm but want a slightly different API and feature set, styled-components is a strong alternative.
  • styled-jsx is a CSS-in-JS library specifically designed for Next.js applications. It allows developers to write scoped CSS directly within their components, ensuring that styles are applied only to the respective components. This approach helps prevent style conflicts and promotes better maintainability. If you are working within the Next.js framework and want a simple way to manage styles, styled-jsx is a suitable choice.

To see how Emotion compares with Sass, Styled-Components, and Styled-JSX, check out the comparison: Comparing emotion vs sass vs styled-components vs styled-jsx.

Similar Npm Packages to polished

polished is a utility library for styling in JavaScript applications, particularly those using styled-components or Emotion. It provides a set of functions that help developers write cleaner and more maintainable styles by offering tools for color manipulation, spacing, typography, and more. With polished, you can easily enhance your styling workflow, making it easier to create responsive and visually appealing designs.

While polished is a powerful tool for styling, there are several alternatives in the React ecosystem that also provide robust styling solutions. Here are a few notable ones:

  • emotion is a popular CSS-in-JS library that allows developers to style applications using JavaScript. It offers a flexible and performant way to write styles, with support for both styled components and traditional CSS classes. Emotion is known for its high performance and small bundle size, making it an excellent choice for applications that require dynamic styling and theming. Its powerful theming capabilities and ease of use make it a favorite among developers looking for a comprehensive styling solution.
  • styled-components is another widely used CSS-in-JS library that enables developers to write actual CSS code to style their components. It allows for the creation of styled components that encapsulate styles and logic, promoting a modular approach to styling. Styled-components also support theming and dynamic styles, making it a versatile choice for building modern React applications. Its popularity and community support make it a reliable option for developers looking to implement component-based styling.
  • styled-system is a utility library that provides a set of design system primitives for building responsive and theme-based styles in React applications. It works well with styled-components and Emotion, allowing developers to create consistent and scalable designs using a set of predefined style functions. Styled-system is particularly useful for projects that require a design system or need to maintain consistent spacing, typography, and color across components.

To see how polished compares with emotion, styled-components, and styled-system, check out the comparison: Comparing emotion vs polished vs styled-components vs styled-system.

Similar Npm Packages to styled-system

styled-system is a utility-first CSS-in-JS library designed for building responsive and themeable user interfaces in React applications. It allows developers to create consistent and scalable design systems by providing a set of style functions that can be easily composed to create custom components. With styled-system, you can leverage a design token approach, making it easier to maintain and update styles across your application.

While styled-system is a powerful tool for styling React components, there are several alternatives that also provide unique features and capabilities. Here are a few notable ones:

  • emotion is a popular CSS-in-JS library that offers a flexible and performant way to style applications. It provides both a styled component API and a CSS prop, allowing developers to choose the approach that best fits their needs. Emotion is known for its excellent performance and small bundle size, making it a great choice for projects that require dynamic styling and theming capabilities. It also supports server-side rendering, which can enhance the performance of your application.

  • styled-components is another widely used CSS-in-JS library that allows developers to write actual CSS code to style their components. It utilizes tagged template literals to create styled components, promoting a clean and intuitive syntax. Styled-components also support theming and global styles, making it easy to manage styles across large applications. Its popularity and strong community support make it a reliable choice for many React developers.

  • theme-ui is a library specifically designed for building themeable user interfaces with React. It provides a set of design primitives and a theme provider that allows developers to easily manage and apply consistent styles across their applications. Theme-ui is built on top of styled-system, making it a great option for those who want to leverage the power of styled-system while focusing on theming and responsive design. It is particularly well-suited for projects that require a strong emphasis on design consistency and accessibility.

To see how styled-system compares with emotion, styled-components, and theme-ui, check out the comparison: Comparing emotion vs styled-components vs styled-system vs theme-ui.

README for styled-components


Fast, expressive styling for React.
Server components, client components, streaming SSR, React Native—one API.

npm downloads gzip size

styled-components is largely maintained by one person. Please help fund the project for consistent long-term support and updates: Open Collective

Style React components with real CSS, scoped automatically and delivered only when needed. No class name juggling, no separate files, no build step required.

  • Works everywhere React runs. Server components, client components, streaming SSR, and React Native—same API, automatic runtime detection.
  • Full CSS, no compromises. Media queries, pseudo-selectors, nesting, keyframes, global styles. If CSS supports it, so does styled-components.
  • TypeScript-first. Built-in types ship with the package. Props flow through to your styles with full inference—no @types install, no manual generics.
  • <13kB gzipped. Small enough to disappear in your bundle. No build plugin required.

Install

npm install styled-components
pnpm / yarn 
pnpm add styled-components

yarn add styled-components

Quick examples

Dynamic props

Vary styles based on component props. Prefix transient props with $ to keep them off the DOM.

import styled from 'styled-components';

const Button = styled.button<{ $primary?: boolean }>`
  background: ${props => (props.$primary ? 'palevioletred' : 'white')};
  color: ${props => (props.$primary ? 'white' : 'palevioletred')};
  font-size: 1em;
  padding: 0.25em 1em;
  border: 2px solid palevioletred;
  border-radius: 3px;
`;

<Button>Normal</Button>
<Button $primary>Primary</Button>

Extending styles

Build variants on top of existing styled components.

const TomatoButton = styled(Button)`
  background: tomato;
  color: white;
  border-color: tomato;
`;

Polymorphic as prop

Swap the rendered element without changing styles.

// Renders a <a> tag with Button styles
<Button as="a" href="/home">Link Button</Button>

Pseudos and nesting

Use & to reference the component's generated class name—works with pseudo-classes, pseudo-elements, and nested selectors.

const Input = styled.input`
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  border-radius: 4px;
  padding: 0.5em;

  &:focus {
    border-color: palevioletred;
    outline: none;
  }

  &::placeholder {
    color: #aaa;
  }
`;

Animations

Define @keyframes once, reference them across components. Names are scoped automatically.

import styled, { keyframes } from 'styled-components';

const rotate = keyframes`
  from { transform: rotate(0deg); }
  to { transform: rotate(360deg); }
`;

const Spinner = styled.div`
  animation: ${rotate} 1s linear infinite;
  width: 40px;
  height: 40px;
  border: 3px solid palevioletred;
  border-top-color: transparent;
  border-radius: 50%;
`;

Theming

Share design tokens across your app via React context. Every styled component receives props.theme.

import styled, { ThemeProvider } from 'styled-components';

const theme = {
  fg: 'palevioletred',
  bg: 'white',
};

const Card = styled.div`
  background: ${props => props.theme.bg};
  color: ${props => props.theme.fg};
  padding: 2em;
`;

<ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
  <Card>Themed content</Card>
</ThemeProvider>

RSC-compatible themes

createTheme turns your tokens into CSS custom properties. Class name hashes stay stable across theme variants—no hydration mismatch when switching light/dark.

import styled, { createTheme, ThemeProvider } from 'styled-components';

const { theme, GlobalStyle: ThemeVars } = createTheme({
  colors: {
    fg: 'palevioletred',
    bg: 'white',
  },
  space: {
    md: '1rem',
  },
});

const Card = styled.div`
  color: ${theme.colors.fg};       /* var(--sc-colors-fg, palevioletred) */
  background: ${theme.colors.bg};
  padding: ${theme.space.md};
`;

// Render <ThemeVars /> at the root to emit the CSS variable declarations
// Pass the theme to ThemeProvider for stable hashes
<ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
  <ThemeVars />
  <Card>Token-driven content</Card>
</ThemeProvider>

Shared styles with css

Extract reusable style blocks to share across components or apply conditionally.

import styled, { css } from 'styled-components';

const truncate = css`
  white-space: nowrap;
  overflow: hidden;
  text-overflow: ellipsis;
`;

const Label = styled.span`
  ${truncate}
  max-width: 200px;
`;

Styling third-party components

Wrap any component that accepts a className prop.

import styled from 'styled-components';
import { Link } from 'react-router-dom';

const StyledLink = styled(Link)`
  color: palevioletred;
  text-decoration: none;

  &:hover {
    text-decoration: underline;
  }
`;

Global styles

Inject app-wide CSS like resets and font faces. Supports theming and dynamic updates.

import { createGlobalStyle } from 'styled-components';

const GlobalStyle = createGlobalStyle`
  body {
    margin: 0;
    font-family: system-ui, sans-serif;
  }
`;

// Render <GlobalStyle /> at the root of your app

Attrs

Set default or static HTML attributes so consumers don't have to.

const PasswordInput = styled.input.attrs({
  type: 'password',
  placeholder: 'Enter password',
})`
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  padding: 0.5em;
`;

Documentation

Community

Contributing guidelines | Code of Conduct | awesome-styled-components

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute.

Backers

Thank you to all our backers! [Become a backer]

Sponsors

Support this project by becoming a sponsor. [Become a sponsor]

Acknowledgements

This project builds on earlier work by Charlie Somerville, Nik Graf, Sunil Pai, Michael Chan, Andrey Popp, Jed Watson, and Andrey Sitnik. Special thanks to @okonet for the logo.

License

Licensed under the MIT License, Copyright © 2016-present styled-components contributors. See LICENSE for details.

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