Emotion vs react-loadable
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 React helper that loads components on demand using promises, to shrink your initial bundle.
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 react-loadable if you need…
- React developers whose main JavaScript bundle has grown large
- Apps that use Webpack and want component-level code splitting
- Teams who want to lazy-load modals, tabs, or heavy widgets that many users never open
- Projects that need server-side rendering with code splitting
Side-by-side
| Emotion | react-loadable | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Library | Library |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 18k | 16.5k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Install with a package manager | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last code update | 14 days ago | 2 years 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.
react-loadable
React Loadable is a small higher-order component: a function that wraps another component so it is loaded only when it is needed. You give it a loader that uses dynamic import(), plus a loading component to show while the code arrives. The README says it is used to split a large app bundle into smaller pieces so the page loads faster.
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
react-loadable
- React developers whose main JavaScript bundle has grown large
- Apps that use Webpack and want component-level code splitting
- Teams who want to lazy-load modals, tabs, or heavy widgets that many users never open
- Projects that need server-side rendering with code splitting
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
react-loadable
- Small API: one Loadable call with a loader and a loading component
- The README shows example bundle size reductions reported by users, though these are anecdotal
- Handles loading states without writing the import and state logic by hand
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
react-loadable
- Projects not using React, since the library is built around React components
- Projects not using a bundler that supports dynamic import(), such as Webpack 2+, because the README ties automatic splitting to it
- Developers looking for an actively maintained option, since the README does not state a current maintenance status and the last push date is 2024-07-10
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
react-loadable
- The README notes the library is also meant to help with server-side rendering, but it gives little detail on setup for that
- The README's loading-component section is incomplete and the example is cut off, so some guidance is unclear
- Newer React features such as lazy and Suspense are not discussed in the README, so readers should check whether they fit their project
Getting started
Emotion
Install the core React package
npm install --save @emotion/reactreact-loadable
Install the package
yarn add react-loadableFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between Emotion and react-loadable?
Emotion: A JavaScript library for writing CSS styles inside your code, mainly for React apps. react-loadable: A React helper that loads components on demand using promises, to shrink your initial bundle. Emotion suits react developers who want styles colocated with components, while react-loadable suits react developers whose main javascript bundle has grown large.
Are Emotion and react-loadable free?
Emotion: Free and open source. react-loadable: Free and open source.
Is Emotion or react-loadable more popular?
Emotion has more GitHub stars (18k) than react-loadable (16.5k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to Emotion and react-loadable?
Other options people compare them with include styled-components, vanilla-extract, Linaria, 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.