Which is Better CSS-in-JS and Preprocessors?
sass vs styled-jsx vs styled-components vs emotion
Search packages..
1 Year
sassstyled-jsxstyled-componentsemotionSimilar Packages:
What's CSS-in-JS and Preprocessors?

CSS-in-JS and preprocessors are tools that enhance the styling capabilities of web applications. They allow developers to write CSS in JavaScript, enabling dynamic styling based on component state and props. Preprocessors like Sass extend CSS with features such as variables, nesting, and mixins, improving maintainability and organization of styles. These tools help streamline the styling process, making it easier to manage complex stylesheets and ensuring better integration with JavaScript frameworks.

NPM Package Downloads Trend
Github Stars Ranking
Stat Detail
Package
Downloads
Stars
Size
Issues
Publish
License
sass14,564,2483,9705.66 MB692 days agoMIT
styled-jsx6,972,9117,7171.03 MB816 months agoMIT
styled-components5,417,93940,5141.76 MB2993 months agoMIT
emotion595,124---4 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: sass vs styled-jsx vs styled-components vs emotion

Styling Approach

  • sass: Sass is a preprocessor that extends CSS with features like variables, nesting, and mixins. It compiles down to standard CSS, allowing you to write more maintainable and organized stylesheets without dynamic capabilities.
  • styled-jsx: Styled-JSX provides scoped CSS for React components, allowing you to write styles directly in your JSX. It ensures that styles are applied only to the components they are defined in, preventing global style leakage.
  • styled-components: Styled-Components uses tagged template literals to style components, allowing you to write CSS directly within your JavaScript. It scopes styles to components, preventing style conflicts and enhancing maintainability.
  • emotion: Emotion allows you to write CSS styles in JavaScript, enabling dynamic styling based on props and state. It supports both styled components and traditional CSS styles, providing flexibility in how you apply styles to your components.

Performance

  • sass: Sass compiles styles at build time, which means there is no runtime overhead for styling. This can lead to better performance in production, as the compiled CSS is static and does not require additional processing during rendering.
  • styled-jsx: Styled-JSX has minimal runtime overhead and compiles styles at build time, similar to Sass. This ensures that styles are efficiently applied without impacting the performance of the application.
  • styled-components: Styled-Components can introduce some runtime overhead due to its dynamic nature, but it includes optimizations like server-side rendering and style caching to mitigate performance issues. The trade-off is often worth it for the benefits of scoped styles.
  • emotion: Emotion is optimized for performance, with a focus on minimizing the runtime overhead. It generates styles at build time and can also use a cache to avoid recalculating styles unnecessarily, leading to faster render times.

Theming Support

  • sass: Sass supports theming through the use of variables and mixins, allowing you to define a set of styles that can be reused across your stylesheets. However, it lacks built-in support for dynamic theming as seen in CSS-in-JS solutions.
  • styled-jsx: Styled-JSX does not have built-in theming support, but you can implement theming by using CSS variables or by passing theme props to your components. This requires more manual setup compared to Emotion or Styled-Components.
  • styled-components: Styled-Components has excellent theming support through its ThemeProvider component, enabling you to define a theme and access it in your styled components. This makes it easy to create a consistent look and feel across your application.
  • emotion: Emotion provides robust theming capabilities, allowing you to define a theme object that can be accessed throughout your application. This makes it easy to implement consistent styling and switch themes dynamically.

Learning Curve

  • sass: Sass is relatively easy to learn for those already familiar with CSS. Its additional features like variables and nesting are intuitive, making it a great choice for developers looking to enhance their CSS skills.
  • styled-jsx: Styled-JSX is easy to learn, particularly for developers familiar with React. Its syntax is simple and integrates seamlessly with JSX, allowing you to write styles directly alongside your components.
  • styled-components: Styled-Components has a gentle learning curve, especially for those who are already comfortable with React. The syntax is straightforward, and its integration with React makes it easy to adopt for component-based styling.
  • emotion: Emotion has a moderate learning curve, especially if you are familiar with CSS-in-JS concepts. Its flexibility can be overwhelming for beginners, but its documentation is comprehensive and helpful for getting started.

Community and Ecosystem

  • sass: Sass has a large and established community with extensive resources, plugins, and integrations available. It is a mature technology that has been widely used in web development for many years.
  • styled-jsx: Styled-JSX is primarily used within the Next.js ecosystem, which has a strong community. While it may not have as large a user base as the others, it is well-supported within the context of Next.js applications.
  • styled-components: Styled-Components has a vast community and strong ecosystem, with numerous tutorials, resources, and third-party libraries available. Its popularity in the React community ensures ongoing support and development.
  • emotion: Emotion has a growing community and is widely adopted in the React ecosystem. It integrates well with other libraries and tools, making it a popular choice for modern web applications.
How to Choose: sass vs styled-jsx vs styled-components vs emotion
  • sass: Choose Sass if you prefer a traditional CSS preprocessor that enhances your CSS with features like variables, nesting, and mixins. Sass is ideal for larger projects where you need to maintain complex stylesheets and want to leverage its powerful features for better organization.
  • styled-jsx: Choose Styled-JSX if you are using Next.js and want a simple way to write scoped CSS directly in your components. Styled-JSX is designed for React applications, providing a straightforward API for styling components without the need for additional configuration.
  • styled-components: Choose Styled-Components if you want a popular CSS-in-JS solution that allows you to write actual CSS code to style your components. It provides a seamless way to manage styles scoped to components, making it easier to avoid style conflicts and improve maintainability.
  • emotion: Choose Emotion if you want a highly performant CSS-in-JS library that offers flexibility in styling components while maintaining a small bundle size. Emotion provides powerful theming capabilities and supports both styled components and traditional CSS styles.
Similar Npm Packages to sass

sass is a popular CSS preprocessor that extends the capabilities of CSS with features like variables, nested rules, mixins, and more. It allows developers to write more maintainable and organized stylesheets, making it easier to manage complex styles in large projects. While Sass is widely used, there are several alternatives that also offer unique features and benefits. Here are a few notable alternatives:

  • less is a dynamic stylesheet language that extends CSS with features such as variables, mixins, and nested rules, similar to Sass. It is known for its simplicity and ease of use, making it a great choice for developers who want to enhance their CSS without a steep learning curve. Less compiles to standard CSS and can be integrated into various build systems, making it a flexible option for many projects.
  • postcss is a tool for transforming CSS with JavaScript plugins. Unlike traditional preprocessors, PostCSS allows developers to use a wide range of plugins to add features like variables, nesting, and autoprefixing. This modular approach gives developers the flexibility to customize their workflow according to their specific needs. PostCSS is particularly useful for teams that want to adopt modern CSS features while maintaining compatibility with older browsers.
  • stylus is another CSS preprocessor that offers a unique syntax and a variety of features, including variables, mixins, and functions. Stylus is known for its flexibility and minimalism, allowing developers to write CSS in a more concise and expressive way. It supports both an indented syntax and a traditional CSS-like syntax, catering to different developer preferences. Stylus is a good choice for those who appreciate a more expressive and less verbose way of writing styles.

To see how Sass compares with Less, PostCSS, and Stylus, check out the comparison: Comparing less vs postcss vs sass vs stylus.

Similar Npm Packages to styled-jsx

styled-jsx is a CSS-in-JS library specifically designed for styling React applications. Developed by the team behind Next.js, it allows developers to write scoped CSS directly within their components, ensuring that styles are applied only to the relevant elements. This approach helps to avoid style conflicts and makes it easier to manage styles in large applications. While styled-jsx provides a robust solution for styling, there are several alternatives in the React ecosystem that also offer unique features. Here are a few notable ones:

  • emotion is a popular CSS-in-JS library that provides powerful and flexible styling capabilities for React applications. It allows developers to write styles using both string and object syntax, making it versatile for various use cases. Emotion also supports theming, server-side rendering, and dynamic styling, making it a great choice for applications that require complex styling solutions. Its performance and developer experience make it a strong alternative to styled-jsx.
  • glamorous is another CSS-in-JS library that focuses on providing a simple and intuitive API for styling React components. It allows developers to create styled components with ease, leveraging the power of JavaScript to define styles. Glamorous supports theming and responsive design, making it suitable for modern web applications. While it may not be as widely adopted as some other libraries, it offers a clean and straightforward approach to styling.
  • styled-components is one of the most popular CSS-in-JS libraries in the React ecosystem. It allows developers to create styled components using tagged template literals, enabling a seamless integration of styles with component logic. Styled-components also support theming, global styles, and server-side rendering, making it a comprehensive solution for styling React applications. Its widespread adoption and strong community support make it a reliable choice for many developers.

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

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.

README for sass

A pure JavaScript implementation of Sass. Sass makes CSS fun again.

Sass logo npm statistics GitHub actions build status
Appveyor build status

This package is a distribution of Dart Sass, compiled to pure JavaScript with no native code or external dependencies. It provides a command-line sass executable and a Node.js API.

Usage

You can install Sass globally using npm install -g sass which will provide access to the sass executable. You can also add it to your project using npm install --save-dev sass. This provides the executable as well as a library:

const sass = require('sass');

const result = sass.compile(scssFilename);

// OR

// Note that `compileAsync()` is substantially slower than `compile()`.
const result = await sass.compileAsync(scssFilename);

See the Sass website for full API documentation.

Legacy API

Dart Sass also supports an older JavaScript API that's fully compatible with Node Sass (with a few exceptions listed below), with support for both the render() and renderSync() functions. This API is considered deprecated and will be removed in Dart Sass 2.0.0, so it should be avoided in new projects.

Sass's support for the legacy JavaScript API has the following limitations:

  • Only the "expanded" and "compressed" values of outputStyle are supported.

  • Dart Sass doesn't support the precision option. Dart Sass defaults to a sufficiently high precision for all existing browsers, and making this customizable would make the code substantially less efficient.

  • Dart Sass doesn't support the sourceComments option. Source maps are the recommended way of locating the origin of generated selectors.

See Also

  • Dart Sass, from which this package is compiled, can be used either as a stand-alone executable or as a Dart library. Running Dart Sass on the Dart VM is substantially faster than running the pure JavaScript version, so this may be appropriate for performance-sensitive applications. The Dart API is also (currently) more user-friendly than the JavaScript API. See the Dart Sass README for details on how to use it.

  • Node Sass, which is a wrapper around LibSass, the C++ implementation of Sass. Node Sass supports the same API as this package and is also faster (although it's usually a little slower than Dart Sass). However, it requires a native library which may be difficult to install, and it's generally slower to add features and fix bugs.

Behavioral Differences from Ruby Sass

There are a few intentional behavioral differences between Dart Sass and Ruby Sass. These are generally places where Ruby Sass has an undesired behavior, and it's substantially easier to implement the correct behavior than it would be to implement compatible behavior. These should all have tracking bugs against Ruby Sass to update the reference behavior.

  1. @extend only accepts simple selectors, as does the second argument of selector-extend(). See issue 1599.

  2. Subject selectors are not supported. See issue 1126.

  3. Pseudo selector arguments are parsed as <declaration-value>s rather than having a more limited custom parsing. See issue 2120.

  4. The numeric precision is set to 10. See issue 1122.

  5. The indented syntax parser is more flexible: it doesn't require consistent indentation across the whole document. See issue 2176.

  6. Colors do not support channel-by-channel arithmetic. See issue 2144.

  7. Unitless numbers aren't == to unit numbers with the same value. In addition, map keys follow the same logic as ==-equality. See issue 1496.

  8. rgba() and hsla() alpha values with percentage units are interpreted as percentages. Other units are forbidden. See issue 1525.

  9. Too many variable arguments passed to a function is an error. See issue 1408.

  10. Allow @extend to reach outside a media query if there's an identical @extend defined outside that query. This isn't tracked explicitly, because it'll be irrelevant when issue 1050 is fixed.

  11. Some selector pseudos containing placeholder selectors will be compiled where they wouldn't be in Ruby Sass. This better matches the semantics of the selectors in question, and is more efficient. See issue 2228.

  12. The old-style :property value syntax is not supported in the indented syntax. See issue 2245.

  13. The reference combinator is not supported. See issue 303.

  14. Universal selector unification is symmetrical. See issue 2247.

  15. @extend doesn't produce an error if it matches but fails to unify. See issue 2250.

  16. Dart Sass currently only supports UTF-8 documents. We'd like to support more, but Dart currently doesn't support them. See dart-lang/sdk#11744, for example.

Disclaimer: this is not an official Google product.

Terms & PrivacyProduct HuntJSON to TypeScriptCopilotChat for Web Dev