Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Headless UI VS Gestalt

Compare Headless UI VS Gestalt and see what are their differences

Headless UI logo Headless UI

Completely unstyled, fully accessible UI components, designed to integrate beautifully with Tailwind CSS.

Gestalt logo Gestalt

Gestalt is Pinterest’s design system. It provides an extensive set of React components for use in building larger web experiences and patterns.
  • Headless UI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-04
  • Gestalt Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17

Headless UI features and specs

  • Decoupled Design and Functionality
    Headless UI separates the logic and functionality of UI components from their styling, allowing developers to implement custom designs without altering the underlying functionality.
  • Flexibility
    Developers have the freedom to use Headless UI's unstyled components with any CSS framework or custom styles, enabling full control over the look and feel of applications.
  • Accessibility
    The library prioritizes accessibility and comes with built-in ARIA roles and attributes, helping developers create components that meet high accessibility standards.
  • Composable API
    Headless UI offers a composable API that makes it easier to integrate with existing codebases and combine with other libraries, enhancing modular development practices.
  • Consistent Updates and Community Support
    Being developed and maintained by the creators of Tailwind CSS, Headless UI enjoys consistent updates and a supportive community which helps in quick issue resolution and feature requests.

Possible disadvantages of Headless UI

  • Steep Learning Curve
    The headless approach requires developers to have a good understanding of coupling logic and styles separately, which can be challenging for those unfamiliar with the concept.
  • Increased Initial Setup Time
    Since Headless UI components are unstyled, additional effort is needed upfront to design and implement custom styles, which could extend the initial setup phase.
  • Limited Out-of-the-Box Solutions
    Unlike fully styled component libraries, Headless UI doesn’t offer ready-to-use design patterns, so developers will have to create these themselves, potentially increasing development time.
  • Dependency on Custom Styling
    Projects relying heavily on Headless UI require well-structured custom styling solutions, which may lead to inconsistencies if not managed carefully.

Gestalt features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Headless UI videos

Headless UI vs Radix UI React/Vue Primitives | The Compared EP 3

More videos:

  • Review - Building a command palette with Tailwind CSS, React, and Headless UI

Gestalt videos

No Gestalt videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Headless UI and Gestalt)
Design Tools
89 89%
11% 11
Developer Tools
78 78%
22% 22
UI Design
100 100%
0% 0
Components Library
74 74%
26% 26

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Headless UI and Gestalt

Headless UI Reviews

React UI Components Libraries: Our Top Picks for 2023
Regarding the support and documentation, Headless UI is good. It has a strong community on GitHub. You can also connect with other users of Headless UI on the Tailwind CSS discord server and seek help. In addition, Headless UI’s discussions page stays active with general help, interactions, and feature requests.
Source: kinsta.com
Tailwind CSS: 15 Component Libraries & UI Kits
Headless UI is what you want to use if you're looking to build interactive apps right from the start, with the ability to control component logic directly through the library rather than writing all the code yourself.
Source: stackdiary.com
22 Best Sites for Free Tailwind Components
You can use the Headless UI gallery in any way possible because each component is entirely unstyled and accessible. There’s something for everyone, from headers and buttons to radios, menus, and transitions. All you need to do is add your own flair to make them your own!

Gestalt Reviews

React UI Components Libraries: Our Top Picks for 2023
Gestalt is a UI library that helps you create amazing user interfaces that people love using. It’s Pinterest’s design tool as well and comes with many features and components. Its interface is also smooth to allow developers quickly get started with the tool.
Source: kinsta.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Headless UI seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 40 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Headless UI mentions (40)

  • Tailwind CSS vs. Bootstrap: Which Framework is Better for Your Project?
    Tailwind CSS ecosystem features growing resources like Tailwind UI (a component library), Headless UI (unstyled, accessible components), and community-built plugins. It’s maintained by a smaller company (Tailwind Labs) but has very active development and a dedicated community of web developers. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • React UI Component Libraries in 2025
    An evolution of the popular Headless UI library, now offering more pre-styled components while maintaining its focus on accessibility and customization. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Top 10 Vue.js libraries you should be using in 2025
    Headless UI is a design pattern and library that separates the logic and behavior of a user interface component from its visual representation. It provides completely unstyled, fully accessible UI components, designed to integrate beautifully with Tailwind CSS. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Let's create Data Table with React, TanStack Table and Tailwind CSS. Part 1: Intro and HTML layout
    Headless UI for various interface component logic. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • 10 game-changing tools that level up Svelte developers in 2025 💪
    Svelte Headless UI is a library of unstyled, accessible UI components, inspired by Tailwind's Headless UI. It gives you all the interactivity without enforcing styles, allowing you to design the components exactly the way you want. With Svelte’s reactivity and this library's flexibility, building complex UI interactions has never been easier. Github repository →. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
View more

Gestalt mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Gestalt yet. Tracking of Gestalt recommendations started around Sep 2023.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Headless UI and Gestalt, you can also consider the following products

DaisyUI - Free UI components plugin for Tailwind CSS

Material UI - A CSS Framework and a Set of React Components that Implement Google's Material Design

Tailwind CSS - A utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom user interfaces.

Blueprint - http://bit. ly/bY8LhR Once your keyword research has identified a Site Concept (i. e., theme) and several related ..

Tailwind UI - Beautiful UI components by the creators of Tailwind CSS.

Chakra UI - Simple, modular and accessible UI components for your React applications.