TailwindCSS vs StyleX which is a CSS-in-JS library from Meta and it is used for Facebook, Instagram and Threads

Tailwind is used in many scenes and is loved by developers for its ease of use, but what are the characteristics of styleX released by Meta? Will StyleX be used to replace Tailwind?

What is StyleX?

On December 5, 2023, Meta released StyleX, a CSS-in-JS library, as open source.

StyleX is a CSS-in-JS library created by Meta for styling web applications. It builds optimized styles using collision-free atomic CSS which is superior to what could be authored and maintained by hand.

Features

The features of styleX are summarized below. These can be said to be very powerful points of styleX.

Scalable

• Minimize CSS output with atomic CSS.
• The CSS size plateaus even as the number of components grows.
• Styles remain readable and maintainable within growing codebases.

Fast

• No runtime style injection.
• All styles are bundled in a static CSS file at compile-time.
• Optimized runtime for merging class names.

Define styles

StyleX can be designed by creating a CSS variable as shown below and connecting it to an appropriate tag using className.

import stylex from "@stylexjs/stylex";

const s = stylex.create({
  main: {
    display: "flex",
    flexDirection: "column",
    alignItems: "center",
    gap: 10,
    paddingTop: 20,
  },
  test: {
    backgroundColor: "red",
    height: "100px",
    width: "100px",
    display: "flex",
    justifyContent: "center",
    alignItems: "center",
  },
});

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <main className={stylex(s.main)}>
      <h1>Hello</h1>
      <h1 className={stylex(s.test)}>World</div>
    </main>
  );
}

Compare to TailwindCSS

StyleX excels in large-scale projects where performance and maintainability are paramount. The zero runtime overhead feature is particularly noteworthy, enhancing efficiency and speed. Also, StyleX might require a grasp of JavaScript and CSS-in-JS concepts.

TailwindCSS exceptionally customizable and responsive-friendly, making it a go-to for rapid UI development and smaller projects. The integration with PurgeCSS ensures an optimized final bundle size, making it as lean as it is powerful. Additionally, Tailwind CSS is straightforward for beginners, though learning class names takes time.

Conclusion

My personal impression after actually using it was that styleX made it easy to dynamically change button colors, which was difficult to do with Tailwind. It gave me the impression that it would last. However, if you are creating a project that is not very large-scale, I feel that Tailwind is easy to use.

Thus, choosing between them depends on the project’s scale, complexity, and whether developers prefer a JavaScript-driven approach or a utility-first CSS methodology.