Emotion vs styled-components
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
A JavaScript library for writing CSS styles inside your code, mainly for React apps.
Open source · MIT
A library for styling React components with CSS written inside your JavaScript.
The short answer
Choose Emotion if you need…
- React developers who want styles colocated with components
- Teams that want to combine and reuse style objects in JavaScript
- Developers who want source maps and labelled class names while debugging
- Projects that want to optionally add a Babel plugin for extra optimizations
Choose styled-components if you need…
- React developers who prefer writing styles alongside components in JavaScript
- Teams building apps that use server-side rendering or React Server Components
- Projects that also target React Native and want one styling approach
Side-by-side
| Emotion | styled-components | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Library | Library |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 18k | 41.1k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Install with a package manager | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last code update | 14 days ago | 8 days ago |
What each one is
Emotion
Emotion is a CSS-in-JS library: you write styles as strings or JavaScript objects inside your components instead of in separate stylesheet files. It is described as offering predictable style composition to avoid CSS specificity problems, plus source maps and labels for debugging. It is aimed at developers building web interfaces, and the README mentions React usage.
styled-components
styled-components is a TypeScript library for React that lets you attach CSS styles directly to React components. Per its description, it supports server components, client components, streaming server-side rendering, and React Native through one API. Developers use it to keep styles close to the components they belong to.
Best for
Emotion
- React developers who want styles colocated with components
- Teams that want to combine and reuse style objects in JavaScript
- Developers who want source maps and labelled class names while debugging
- Projects that want to optionally add a Babel plugin for extra optimizations
styled-components
- React developers who prefer writing styles alongside components in JavaScript
- Teams building apps that use server-side rendering or React Server Components
- Projects that also target React Native and want one styling approach
Strengths
Emotion
- The README describes predictable composition that helps avoid CSS specificity issues
- Source maps and labels are offered for developer experience
- The package is MIT licensed and has a large community with 18k+ GitHub stars
styled-components
- MIT licensed and open source, with a large community (about 41,000 GitHub stars at time of listing)
- Covers client, server, and React Native rendering under one API, per the project description
- Written in TypeScript, which helps with type-checked props and styles
Not ideal for
Emotion
- Designers or non-programmers, since it requires writing JavaScript code to style pages
- Projects that prefer plain CSS or CSS modules and do not want a runtime styling library
- Teams needing a framework-agnostic setup beyond what the README covers, since the README focuses on React examples
styled-components
- People who only need plain CSS or a utility-class system; the README describes a CSS-in-JS approach, so a different tool may fit better
- Non-React projects, since the library is built for React and React Native
- Beginners new to React, who should learn React basics first
Trade-offs
Emotion
- It is a runtime styling library, so styles are computed in JavaScript, which the README does not quantify beyond claiming good performance with caching
- The README is truncated and most detail lives in the external docs site
- The Babel plugin is optional, so getting the most out of it means extra setup
styled-components
- Adds a runtime styling layer to your app, so trade-offs in bundle size and performance depend on setup; the README excerpt provided does not give measurements
- Because the README was truncated, detailed setup and configuration specifics could not be confirmed here
Getting started
Emotion
Install the core React package
npm install --save @emotion/reactstyled-components
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/styled-components/styled-componentsFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between Emotion and styled-components?
Emotion: A JavaScript library for writing CSS styles inside your code, mainly for React apps. styled-components: A library for styling React components with CSS written inside your JavaScript. Emotion suits react developers who want styles colocated with components, while styled-components suits react developers who prefer writing styles alongside components in javascript.
Are Emotion and styled-components free?
Emotion: Free and open source. styled-components: Free and open source.
Is Emotion or styled-components more popular?
styled-components has more GitHub stars (41.1k) than Emotion (18k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to Emotion and styled-components?
Other options people compare them with include vanilla-extract, Linaria, react-loadable, Zustand, TanStack Table.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.