CSS Modules vs Styled Components

Developers should use CSS Modules when building component-based applications where style isolation is critical to avoid naming collisions and improve code maintainability meets developers should learn styled components when building react applications that require maintainable, scalable, and dynamic styling, especially in component-driven architectures. Here's our take.

CSS Modules

Nice Pick

Developers should use CSS Modules when building component-based applications where style isolation is critical to avoid naming collisions and improve code maintainability

Pros

• It is particularly useful in large-scale projects with multiple developers, as it allows for local scoping without relying on naming conventions like BEM
• Related to: react, vue-js

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Styled Components

Developers should learn Styled Components when building React applications that require maintainable, scalable, and dynamic styling, especially in component-driven architectures

Pros

• It is ideal for projects needing theme support, server-side rendering, or where CSS-in-JS benefits like colocation of styles and logic are prioritized
• Related to: react, css-in-js

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. CSS Modules is a methodology while Styled Components is a library. We picked CSS Modules based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

CSS Modules wins

Based on overall popularity. CSS Modules is more widely used, but Styled Components excels in its own space.