tamagui

Pros of Primitives

• Highly accessible components with ARIA support out-of-the-box
• Unstyled and customizable, allowing for greater design flexibility
• Extensive documentation and examples for each component

Cons of Primitives

• Limited to web applications, not suitable for native mobile development
• Requires more setup and styling work compared to pre-styled components
• Steeper learning curve for developers new to headless UI concepts

Code Comparison

Primitives:

import * as Dialog from '@radix-ui/react-dialog';

<Dialog.Root>
  <Dialog.Trigger>Open</Dialog.Trigger>
  <Dialog.Content>
    <Dialog.Title>Dialog Title</Dialog.Title>
    <Dialog.Description>Dialog content here</Dialog.Description>
  </Dialog.Content>
</Dialog.Root>

Tamagui:

import { Dialog, Button, H2, Paragraph } from 'tamagui'

<Dialog>
  <Dialog.Trigger asChild><Button>Open</Button></Dialog.Trigger>
  <Dialog.Portal>
    <Dialog.Content>
      <H2>Dialog Title</H2>
      <Paragraph>Dialog content here</Paragraph>
    </Dialog.Content>
  </Dialog.Portal>
</Dialog>

Both libraries offer composable dialog components, but Tamagui provides pre-styled elements (like H2 and Paragraph) while Primitives focuses on unstyled, accessible structure.

Pros of Chakra UI

• Extensive documentation and community support
• Highly customizable with a robust theming system
• Seamless integration with React and Next.js projects

Cons of Chakra UI

• Larger bundle size compared to Tamagui
• Limited support for native mobile development
• Steeper learning curve for beginners

Code Comparison

Chakra UI:

import { Box, Text } from '@chakra-ui/react'

const Example = () => (
  <Box bg="tomato" p={4} color="white">
    <Text fontSize="xl">Hello, Chakra UI!</Text>
  </Box>
)

Tamagui:

import { YStack, Text } from 'tamagui'

const Example = () => (
  <YStack bg="$red10" p="$4" color="$white">
    <Text fontSize="$6">Hello, Tamagui!</Text>
  </YStack>
)

Both libraries offer a similar component-based approach, but Tamagui uses a more concise syntax for styling and theming. Chakra UI relies on predefined theme values, while Tamagui uses a token-based system with a $ prefix. Tamagui's approach allows for better performance and smaller bundle sizes, especially in React Native projects. However, Chakra UI's extensive ecosystem and documentation may make it easier for developers to get started and find solutions to common problems.

Pros of Ariakit

• Focuses on accessibility and ARIA compliance, providing robust keyboard navigation and screen reader support
• Offers a wide range of customizable components with minimal styling, allowing for greater flexibility in design
• Provides thorough documentation and examples for each component

Cons of Ariakit

• Less emphasis on performance optimization compared to Tamagui
• Doesn't offer native mobile support out of the box
• May require more custom styling work to achieve desired visual aesthetics

Code Comparison

Ariakit:

import { Button } from "ariakit/button";

function MyButton() {
  return <Button>Click me</Button>;
}

Tamagui:

import { Button } from "tamagui";

function MyButton() {
  return <Button>Click me</Button>;
}

While the basic usage appears similar, Tamagui's Button component comes with built-in styling and theming capabilities, whereas Ariakit's Button focuses on accessibility features and requires additional styling.

Pros of Stitches

• Lightweight and focused on CSS-in-JS for web applications
• Excellent TypeScript support with zero-runtime CSS-in-JS
• Simple API with a familiar CSS-like syntax

Cons of Stitches

• Limited to web platforms, not designed for React Native
• Lacks built-in components or a comprehensive UI framework
• May require additional setup for responsive design and theming

Code Comparison

Stitches:

import { createStitches } from '@stitches/react';

const { styled } = createStitches({});

const Button = styled('button', {
  backgroundColor: 'gainsboro',
  borderRadius: '9999px',
});

Tamagui:

import { styled } from 'tamagui';

const Button = styled(Stack, {
  backgroundColor: '$background',
  borderRadius: '$4',
  variants: {
    size: {
      small: { padding: '$2' },
      large: { padding: '$4' },
    },
  },
});

Key Differences

• Tamagui offers a full UI kit and supports both web and native platforms
• Stitches focuses on CSS-in-JS for web, while Tamagui provides a more comprehensive solution for cross-platform development
• Tamagui includes built-in components and a design system, whereas Stitches requires additional libraries for a complete UI framework

Pros of styled-components

• Widely adopted and mature ecosystem with extensive community support
• Seamless integration with React components and props
• Supports server-side rendering out of the box

Cons of styled-components

• Performance overhead due to runtime CSS generation
• Larger bundle size compared to traditional CSS solutions
• Limited support for non-React environments

Code Comparison

styled-components:

const Button = styled.button`
  background-color: ${props => props.primary ? 'blue' : 'white'};
  color: ${props => props.primary ? 'white' : 'blue'};
  padding: 10px 20px;
`;

Tamagui:

import { Button } from '@tamagui/core'

const MyButton = styled(Button, {
  backgroundColor: '$blue',
  color: '$white',
  padding: '$2 $3',
})

Tamagui offers a more optimized approach with static extraction and compile-time optimizations, resulting in smaller bundle sizes and improved performance. It also provides a unified styling system for both React Native and web applications, which is not natively supported by styled-components. However, styled-components has a larger ecosystem and more widespread adoption, making it easier to find resources and community support.

Pros of Emotion

• Mature and widely adopted CSS-in-JS solution with a large ecosystem
• Flexible API supporting both object and string styles
• Excellent TypeScript support and type inference

Cons of Emotion

• Larger bundle size compared to Tamagui
• Runtime performance overhead for style computation
• Lacks built-in UI components and design system features

Code Comparison

Emotion:

import { css } from '@emotion/react'

const style = css`
  background-color: hotpink;
  &:hover {
    color: ${props => props.color};
  }
`

Tamagui:

import { styled } from 'tamagui'

const StyledView = styled(View, {
  backgroundColor: 'hotpink',
  hoverStyle: {
    color: '$color',
  },
})

Tamagui offers a more concise syntax and built-in support for responsive styles and themes. Emotion provides greater flexibility in style definition but requires more verbose code. Tamagui's approach is optimized for performance and smaller bundle sizes, while Emotion focuses on developer experience and ecosystem compatibility.