I’m currently working on a React project using Material-UI components, and I’m trying to decide whether to use @mui/material/styles or styled-components for styling. I understand that both have their advantages:

• @mui/material/styles offers deep integration with Material-UI’s theming system, making it easy to apply consistent styling across the app.
• styled-components provides more flexibility for complex styling scenarios and is not strictly tied to Material-UI, allowing for potentially richer customization.

Example using @mui/material/styles :

import { Button } from '@mui/material';
import { styled } from '@mui/material/styles';

const CustomButton = styled(Button)(({ theme }) => ({
  backgroundColor: theme.palette.primary.main,
  color: 'white',
  '&:hover': {
    backgroundColor: theme.palette.primary.dark,
  },
  padding: '10px 20px',
}));

function App() {
  return <CustomButton>Click Me</CustomButton>;
}

Example using styled-components

import { Button } from '@mui/material';
import styled from 'styled-components';

const FancyButton = styled(Button)`
  background-color: pink;
  color: navy;
  &:hover {
    background-color: purple;
  }
  padding: 10px 20px;
`;

function App() {
  return <FancyButton>Click Me</FancyButton>;
}

Could anyone share insights or experiences regarding the performance implications and maintainability when using these libraries in large-scale applications? Which would you recommend for a project that aims to maintain a balance between customization and consistency? Are both methods valid for use?

Thank you!