Superstylin Theme is a Gatsby theme that uses styled-components for CSS-in-JS styling and Gatsby's built-in GraphQL for blog post handling, providing a minimal starter structure for Gatsby-powered sites and blogs.
What is the Superstylin Theme?
Superstylin Theme is an open-source Gatsby theme created by Enrique Benitez and released under the MIT License in 2018. As a Gatsby theme, it acts as a plugin that you can drop into a Gatsby project to add styled-components as the default styling approach and a preconfigured GraphQL setup for querying and sorting blog posts. The theme provides a simple file structure that you can build on, and it is designed to work for sites, blogs, or a combination of both. It runs on Gatsby's React-based static site generator, so every component is a React component styled with styled-components.
What makes Superstylin Theme stand out?
- Styled-components built in — The theme makes styled-components its default CSS-in-JS solution, meaning you write styles directly inside JavaScript components instead of separate stylesheets.
- GraphQL blog queries — Using Gatsby's built-in GraphQL layer, the theme can fetch and sort blog posts, so you don't need an external CMS to manage content.
- Minimal project structure — The layout is kept deliberately small and simple, giving you a solid starting point to customize for your own site.
- Flexible for sites and blogs — The README states it is "perfect for sites, blogs or both", covering static landing pages, portfolios, and personal blogs.
- React-based architecture — Since Gatsby is built on React, all files use React components and modern JavaScript.
- MIT licensed — Free to use, modify, and redistribute under the MIT License; copyright 2018 Enrique Benitez.
Who should use the Superstylin Theme?
- Gatsby developers who want a ready-made styled-components setup and a clean baseline to start a new project.
- Bloggers who want a blog with GraphQL-driven post lists without configuring a content pipeline from scratch.
- React developers wanting to explore static site generation with CSS-in-JS while staying in the React ecosystem.
- Hackathon participants looking for a small, hackable Gatsby theme; the repository is tagged with hacktoberfest, indicating a welcoming community and easy contribution.
What can you do with the Superstylin Theme?
- Create a personal blog: Use the GraphQL-layer setup to fetch and sort markdown-based posts, styling every component with styled-components.
- Build a landing page: The project's topics include
landing-page, so the minimal structure works as a starting point for marketing or product landing pages. - Learn how Gatsby themes work: Inspect the demo folder in the repository to see the theme in use, and the simple plugin structure to understand Gatsby theming.
How does the Superstylin Theme work?
Install the theme with yarn add gatsby-theme-superstylin, then register gatsby-theme-superstylin in the plugins array of your site's gatsby-config.js. The repository includes a demo directory showing a working example of the theme, making it easy to see how the pieces fit together.
Pricing
The Superstylin Theme is free and open source under the MIT License, so there are no paid tiers or subscription plans.
FAQ
Is the Superstylin Theme free?
Yes, the theme is released under the MIT License by Enrique Benitez. You can use it in personal and commercial projects without cost, and you are free to modify and redistribute it.
How do I install the Superstylin Theme?
Run yarn add gatsby-theme-superstylin in your Gatsby project, then add gatsby-theme-superstylin to the plugins array in your gatsby-config.js file.
What styling approach does the Superstylin Theme use?
It uses styled-components, a CSS-in-JS library. This means your styles are defined inside JavaScript files using tagged template literals, and styled-components injects the CSS at runtime.
Does the Superstylin Theme support blog posts?
Yes, the theme leverages Gatsby's built-in GraphQL functionality to fetch and sort blog posts, so you can build a blog with minimal extra configuration.
Who created the Superstylin Theme?
The theme was created by Enrique Benitez, who thanks Glen Maddern, Max Stoiber, and Kyle Mathews for their work on styled-components and Gatsby.
