CSS-in-JS Libraries and Design Systems Comparison
styled-components vs emotion vs styled-system vs theme-ui
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What's CSS-in-JS Libraries and Design Systems?

CSS-in-JS libraries and design systems provide developers with tools to style components using JavaScript, enabling dynamic styling and theming capabilities. They allow for a more modular approach to styling, where styles are scoped to components, reducing the risk of conflicts and improving maintainability. These libraries often come with features that enhance the developer experience, such as theming, responsive design, and utility functions, making it easier to create consistent and visually appealing user interfaces.

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styled-components5,690,75540,5741.76 MB3044 months agoMIT
emotion611,188---4 years agoMIT
styled-system582,987---5 years agoMIT
theme-ui52,3145,30880.4 kB672 months agoMIT
Feature Comparison: styled-components vs emotion vs styled-system vs theme-ui

Styling Approach

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components uses tagged template literals to define styles, which keeps styles close to the components they affect. This approach promotes better organization and encapsulation of styles, making them easier to manage and maintain.

  • emotion:

    Emotion allows for both object-based styles and template literals, providing flexibility in how styles are defined. It supports dynamic styling based on props, making it easy to create responsive and interactive components.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System focuses on a utility-first approach, allowing developers to create responsive designs using a set of predefined style functions. It promotes consistency by using design tokens and enables rapid prototyping of UI components.

  • theme-ui:

    Theme UI combines the power of CSS-in-JS with a theme provider, allowing for easy theming and responsive design. It emphasizes accessibility and provides a set of components that adhere to design principles.

Theming Capabilities

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components supports theming through its ThemeProvider, enabling you to define a theme and access it in your styled components. This allows for easy customization of styles based on the current theme.

  • emotion:

    Emotion provides a powerful theming solution that allows you to define a theme object and access it within your styled components. This makes it easy to maintain a consistent design across your application.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System is built around the concept of design tokens, making it easy to create a consistent theme. It allows for responsive styles and provides a way to define a theme object that can be used throughout your application.

  • theme-ui:

    Theme UI is specifically designed for theming, providing a straightforward way to create and manage themes. It integrates well with the theme provider and allows for responsive design out of the box.

Performance

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components also focuses on performance, with features like automatic critical CSS extraction and server-side rendering support. However, it may have a slightly larger bundle size compared to Emotion due to its additional features.

  • emotion:

    Emotion is optimized for performance, using a runtime that minimizes the amount of CSS generated and injected into the DOM. It supports server-side rendering and critical CSS extraction, improving load times and performance.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System's performance is largely dependent on how it is used. By leveraging utility functions and design tokens, it can help reduce the complexity of styles and improve performance, especially in large applications.

  • theme-ui:

    Theme UI is designed with performance in mind, offering a lightweight solution for theming and responsive design. It minimizes the amount of CSS generated and supports server-side rendering.

Learning Curve

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components has a relatively gentle learning curve, especially for developers familiar with CSS. Its straightforward API and focus on component-based styles make it easy to pick up and use effectively.

  • emotion:

    Emotion has a moderate learning curve, especially if you are familiar with CSS-in-JS concepts. Its flexibility allows for various styling approaches, which may require some time to master.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System may have a steeper learning curve due to its utility-first approach and reliance on design tokens. However, once understood, it can greatly enhance productivity and consistency in design.

  • theme-ui:

    Theme UI is designed to be user-friendly, especially for those familiar with React. Its focus on theming and accessibility makes it easy to adopt, although understanding its full potential may take some time.

Community and Ecosystem

  • styled-components:

    Styled-Components has a large and active community, with many resources, tutorials, and third-party libraries available. Its popularity ensures ongoing support and development.

  • emotion:

    Emotion has a strong community and is widely used in the React ecosystem. It integrates well with other libraries and tools, making it a popular choice among developers.

  • styled-system:

    Styled-System has a growing community, particularly among developers focused on design systems and utility-first CSS. It is often used in conjunction with other libraries to create cohesive design systems.

  • theme-ui:

    Theme UI is gaining traction in the React community, especially among developers focused on theming and accessibility. Its integration with other libraries and frameworks is improving, making it a viable choice for modern applications.

How to Choose: styled-components vs emotion vs styled-system vs theme-ui
  • styled-components:

    Choose Styled-Components if you prefer a straightforward API for creating styled components with a focus on component encapsulation. It is ideal for projects that benefit from a strong emphasis on component-based design and want to leverage the power of tagged template literals.

  • emotion:

    Choose Emotion if you need a highly flexible and performant CSS-in-JS solution that allows for both styled components and traditional CSS syntax. It is particularly useful for projects that require dynamic styling and theming capabilities.

  • styled-system:

    Choose Styled-System if you want to build a design system with responsive design capabilities and a focus on utility-first CSS. It is perfect for projects that require a consistent design language and want to leverage a system of design tokens for spacing, colors, and typography.

  • theme-ui:

    Choose Theme UI if you are building a themeable React application and want to use a design system that integrates seamlessly with the theme provider. It is particularly suited for projects that require a strong focus on accessibility and responsive design.

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 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.

Similar Npm Packages to theme-ui

theme-ui is a library designed for building themeable user interfaces in React applications. It provides a set of tools to create responsive, accessible, and customizable designs using a theme-based approach. With theme-ui, developers can easily manage styles and themes, allowing for a consistent look and feel across their applications. While theme-ui offers a robust solution for styling, there are several alternatives in the React ecosystem that also provide powerful styling capabilities. Here are a few notable options:

  • emotion is a popular CSS-in-JS library that allows developers to write CSS styles with JavaScript. It provides a flexible and performant way to style applications, enabling the use of dynamic styles and theming. With emotion, you can create styled components and apply styles conditionally based on props or state. If you are looking for a highly customizable and efficient styling solution that integrates seamlessly with your React components, emotion is an excellent choice.

  • rebass is a React component library that focuses on creating responsive and themeable UI components. Built on top of styled-system, rebass provides a set of primitive components that can be easily customized using props. This makes it easy to create a consistent design system while maintaining flexibility in styling. If you want a library that combines component-based design with a focus on responsive layouts and theming, rebass is a great option.

  • styled-components is another widely-used CSS-in-JS library that allows developers to write actual CSS within their JavaScript files. It enables the creation of styled components with encapsulated styles, making it easy to manage and maintain styles in large applications. styled-components also supports theming, allowing for easy customization of styles across your application. If you prefer a well-established library with a large community and extensive documentation, styled-components is a solid choice.

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

README for styled-components

Visual primitives for the component age. Use the best bits of ES6 and CSS to style your apps without stress 💅

downloads: 600k/month Discord gzip size module formats: umd, cjs, esm Code Coverage

Upgrading from v5? See the migration guide.

Utilizing tagged template literals (a recent addition to JavaScript) and the power of CSS, styled-components allow you to write actual CSS code to style your components. It also removes the mapping between components and styles – using components as a low-level styling construct could not be easier!

const Button = styled.button`
  color: grey;
`;

Alternatively, you may use style objects. This allows for easy porting of CSS from inline styles, while still supporting the more advanced styled-components capabilities like component selectors and media queries.

const Button = styled.button({
  color: 'grey',
});

Equivalent to:

const Button = styled.button`
  color: grey;
`;

styled-components is compatible with both React (for web) and React Native – meaning it's the perfect choice even for truly universal apps! See the documentation about React Native for more information.

Supported by Front End Center. Thank you for making this possible!

Docs

See the documentation at styled-components.com/docs for more information about using styled-components!

Quicklinks to some of the most-visited pages:

Example

import React from 'react';

import styled from 'styled-components';

// Create a <Title> react component that renders an <h1> which is
// centered, palevioletred and sized at 1.5em
const Title = styled.h1`
  font-size: 1.5em;
  text-align: center;
  color: palevioletred;
`;

// Create a <Wrapper> react component that renders a <section> with
// some padding and a papayawhip background
const Wrapper = styled.section`
  padding: 4em;
  background: papayawhip;
`;

function MyUI() {
  return (
    // Use them like any other React component – except they're styled!
    <Wrapper>
      <Title>Hello World, this is my first styled component!</Title>
    </Wrapper>
  );
}

This is what you'll see in your browser:

Looking for v5?

The main branch is for the most-current version of styled-components, currently v6. For changes targeting v5, please point your PRs at the legacy-v5 branch.

Built with styled-components

A lot of hard work goes into community libraries, projects, and guides. A lot of them make it easier to get started or help you with your next project! There are also a whole lot of interesting apps and sites that people have built using styled-components.

Make sure to head over to awesome-styled-components to see them all! And please contribute and add your own work to the list so others can find it.

Contributing

If you want to contribute to styled-components please see our contributing and community guidelines, they'll help you get set up locally and explain the whole process.

Please also note that all repositories under the styled-components organization follow our Code of Conduct, make sure to review and follow it.

Badge

Let everyone know you're using styled-components → style: styled-components

[![style: styled-components](https://img.shields.io/badge/style-%F0%9F%92%85%20styled--components-orange.svg?colorB=daa357&colorA=db748e)](https://github.com/styled-components/styled-components)

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute. [Contribute].

Backers

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

Sponsors

Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. [Become a sponsor]

License

Licensed under the MIT License, Copyright © 2016-present Glen Maddern and Maximilian Stoiber.

See LICENSE for more information.

Acknowledgements

This project builds on a long line of earlier work by clever folks all around the world. We'd like to thank Charlie Somerville, Nik Graf, Sunil Pai, Michael Chan, Andrey Popp, Jed Watson & Andrey Sitnik who contributed ideas, code or inspiration.

Special thanks to @okonet for the fantastic logo.

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