Styled Components vs Emotion in React: Key Differences and Usage

Both Styled Components and Emotion are popular CSS-in-JS libraries for React that let you style components using JavaScript. Styled Components focuses on tagged template literals for styling, while Emotion offers more flexibility with both template literals and object styles, plus slightly better performance and theming options.

Quick Comparison

Here is a quick side-by-side look at key factors for Styled Components and Emotion in React.

Factor	Styled Components	Emotion
Styling Syntax	Tagged template literals	Tagged template literals + object styles
Performance	Good, slightly slower in some cases	Generally faster and smaller bundle
Theming Support	Built-in theming with	Built-in theming with , more flexible
Developer Experience	Simple API, popular and mature	More flexible API, supports css prop
Community & Ecosystem	Large community, many tutorials	Growing community, good integration with other tools
Bundle Size	Larger than Emotion	Smaller and more optimized

Key Differences

Styled Components uses tagged template literals exclusively to style React components, making the syntax very close to writing plain CSS inside JavaScript. This approach is simple and intuitive for beginners and those familiar with CSS.

Emotion supports both tagged template literals and object styles, giving developers flexibility to choose the style format they prefer. It also supports the css prop, which allows inline styling directly on JSX elements without creating styled components.

Performance-wise, Emotion tends to be faster and produces smaller bundles because of its optimized runtime. Both libraries support theming via a ThemeProvider, but Emotion's theming is more flexible and integrates well with other styling solutions. Overall, Styled Components is simpler and more opinionated, while Emotion offers more options and better performance.

Code Comparison

Here is how you create a styled button using Styled Components:

javascript

import styled from 'styled-components';

const Button = styled.button`
  background-color: #007bff;
  color: white;
  padding: 10px 20px;
  border: none;
  border-radius: 4px;
  cursor: pointer;

  &:hover {
    background-color: #0056b3;
  }
`;

export default function App() {
  return <Button>Click me</Button>;
}

Output

A blue button with white text labeled 'Click me' that darkens on hover.

Emotion Equivalent

Here is the same styled button using Emotion with tagged template literals:

javascript

/** @jsxImportSource @emotion/react */
import { css } from '@emotion/react';

const buttonStyle = css`
  background-color: #007bff;
  color: white;
  padding: 10px 20px;
  border: none;
  border-radius: 4px;
  cursor: pointer;

  &:hover {
    background-color: #0056b3;
  }
`;

export default function App() {
  return <button css={buttonStyle}>Click me</button>;
}

Output

A blue button with white text labeled 'Click me' that darkens on hover.

When to Use Which

Choose Styled Components when you want a simple, CSS-like syntax with a large community and stable ecosystem. It's great for projects where you want clear separation of styles and components using template literals.

Choose Emotion when you need more flexibility in styling options, better performance, or want to use the css prop for inline styles. Emotion is ideal if you want smaller bundles and more control over theming and style composition.

Key Takeaways

Styled Components uses tagged template literals for simple, CSS-like styling.

Emotion supports both template literals and object styles with better performance.

Emotion's css prop allows inline styling without creating styled components.

Styled Components has a larger community and simpler API.

Choose Emotion for flexibility and smaller bundle size, Styled Components for simplicity.