It is a slender, erect or spreading shrub with elliptic leaves and white flowers arranged singly in leaf axils near the ends of branches.

Styphelia sonderensis is a slender erect or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) high.

Flowering occurs in most months and the fruit is an oval, crimson drupe about 6 mm (0.24 in) long.

[3][2] This species was first formally described in 1975 by James Hamlyn Willis who gave it the name Leucopogon sonderensis in the journal Muelleria from specimens he collected on Mount Sonder in 1966.

[3][4] In 2020, Michael Hislop, Darren Crayn and Caroline Puente-Lelievre transferred the species to Styphelia as S. sonderensis in Australian Systematic Botany.