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Pattern Lab VS Storybook

Compare Pattern Lab VS Storybook and see what are their differences

Pattern Lab logo Pattern Lab

Create atomic design systems with Pattern Lab.

Storybook logo Storybook

Storybook is an open source tool for developing UI components in isolation for React, Vue, and Angular. It makes building stunning UIs organized and efficient.
  • Pattern Lab Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-20
  • Storybook Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21

Pattern Lab features and specs

  • Component-Driven Development
    Pattern Lab encourages a modular approach by allowing developers to create reusable components, which promotes consistency and efficiency in developing user interfaces.
  • Atomic Design
    It is built on the Atomic Design methodology, which helps in designing systems by breaking down interfaces into basic building blocks, leading to more manageable and scalable design systems.
  • Live Style Guide
    Pattern Lab generates a live style guide that updates in real time as components are developed, making it easy for designers and developers to stay in sync with the design system.
  • Platform Agnostic
    Pattern Lab can be integrated with various development stacks and workflows, making it flexible and adaptable to a wide range of projects.
  • Enhanced Collaboration
    By facilitating a shared language and set of tools between designers and developers, Pattern Lab improves collaboration and reduces communication barriers.

Possible disadvantages of Pattern Lab

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For teams that are new to the Atomic Design methodology or to Pattern Lab itself, there can be a significant learning curve required to get up to speed.
  • Initial Setup Complexity
    Setting up a project can be complex, especially for beginners, as it requires understanding both the tool and the underlying design principles thoroughly.
  • Limited Customization
    Although flexible, Pattern Lab does have limitations in terms of customizations, which may not be suitable for very specific or unique project requirements.
  • Performance Overheads
    As projects grow in size and complexity, managing and compiling a large number of components can lead to performance overheads, affecting build times.
  • Maintenance Burden
    Keeping the Pattern Lab and its components in sync with the ongoing changes in projects can become a maintenance burden over time, requiring dedicated resources.

Storybook features and specs

  • Component Isolation
    Storybook allows developers to isolate components from the main application, making it easier to develop and debug individual components without dealing with the app's entire context.
  • Live Component Demos
    Storybook provides real-time, interactive demos of components. This is especially useful for showcasing components to non-technical stakeholders or for internal documentation.
  • Improved Documentation
    Storybook's interface allows for comprehensive documentation of components, including their states and variations, which improves team communication and onboarding processes.
  • Supports Multiple Frameworks
    Storybook is framework-agnostic and supports popular JavaScript frameworks and libraries, including React, Vue, Angular, and more.
  • Addons and Plugins
    There is a large ecosystem of addons and plugins that extend Storybook's functionality, such as accessibility checking, design tool integration, and performance testing.
  • Hot Module Replacement (HMR)
    Storybook supports HMR, providing instant feedback on code changes without requiring a full page reload, thereby speeding up the development process.

Possible disadvantages of Storybook

  • Initial Setup and Configuration
    Setting up Storybook for the first time can be complex and time-consuming, especially for large projects with unique configurations.
  • Overhead for Small Projects
    For very small projects or simple components, using Storybook might add unnecessary overhead, both in terms of setup and ongoing maintenance.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a learning curve associated with Storybook, particularly for developers who are not familiar with component-driven development or have limited experience with UI libraries.
  • Performance Issues
    For extremely large projects, Storybook can sometimes experience performance issues, primarily due to the volume of components and stories being processed.
  • Dependency Management
    Storybook introduces additional dependencies to a project, which can complicate dependency management and version conflicts.
  • Context and Global State
    Managing global states, contexts, or inter-component interactions can be challenging in Storybook, as it isolates components from the larger application context.

Pattern Lab videos

Introduction to Pattern Lab

More videos:

  • Review - Using Pattern Lab to Design More Efficiently

Storybook videos

Disney's Cinderella Deluxe Storybook Review

More videos:

  • Review - Disney's Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs Deluxe Storybook Review
  • Review - Disney Frozen The Story of Anna and Elsa Deluxe Storybook Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Pattern Lab and Storybook)
Design Tools
16 16%
84% 84
Developer Tools
9 9%
91% 91
React
8 8%
92% 92
CSS Framework
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Pattern Lab and Storybook

Pattern Lab Reviews

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Storybook Reviews

20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
Storybook is free, open-source, and one of the best JavaScript frameworks for creating separate UI elements and testing. For UI development, UI testing, and documentation, it is used by thousands of teams. It is simpler to find and repair issues with the components when developers use Storybook to construct a catalog and interact with them in a live environment.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Storybook seems to be a lot more popular than Pattern Lab. While we know about 225 links to Storybook, we've tracked only 6 mentions of Pattern Lab. 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.

Pattern Lab mentions (6)

  • Unlocking the frontend – a call for standardizing component APIs pt.2
    While this helped ease integration work, in parallel to that we also started exploring more systematic approaches on the frontend side itself. With the advent of Brad Frost Atomic Design, and tools like Pattern Lab, we started using a more component-centric approach. This included colocating all styling (CSS), behavior (JavaScript) and semantic structure (HTML) for a component, and way better encapsulation as a... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Atomic Design: A Methodology for Building Design Systems
    In order to apply this methodology in your work, you can use a tool called Pattern Lab, created by Brad Frost and Dave Olsen. Pattern Lab is a tool to create atomic design systems. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Integrating Accessibility In The Web Development Process
    Something that would really help to work with tested components and stay consistent with the code and guarantee code quality would be a component library created with Storybook or Pattern Lab, for example. Developers who have a high level of knowledge of how to write accessible code can create components and test them before implementing them. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • How do you make the styling of the site flexible to fast change, but not tedious to actually go in and change every single detail?
    You can read more about Atomic Design Systems and how it scales. I've used Patternlab and I find it awesome. Source: over 3 years ago
  • fractal.build as an atomic design tool
    Fractal seemed easier, at least to me, to understand and maintain, than PatternLab, which I failed to install due a bug in the current installer (and when I managed to install the grunt version, I was already told that there is fractal as a possible alternative). - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
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Storybook mentions (225)

  • Monorepo Tutorial With Lerna, Storybook & Next.js
    In this tutorial, you'll learn how to build a monorepo using Lerna. We’ll be building a Next.js application which will import components from a separate package. We’ll also be using Storybook to showcase those components. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • UmiJS: the Shaolin of web frameworks
    Dumi. A static site generator specifically designed for component library development. Look at it as something between Storybook and Docusaurus inside the Umi world (but much better integrated between each other, presumably). - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Screenshot testing: Gotta Catch 'Em All
    Import type { Meta, StoryObj } from '@storybook/react'; Import { fn } from '@storybook/test'; Import { Button } from './Button'; // More on how to set up stories at: https://storybook.js.org/docs/writing-stories#default-export Const meta = { title: 'Example/Button', component: Button, parameters: { // Optional parameter to center the component in the Canvas. More info:... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Storybook Starter Guide: Learn Design System Principles
    Storybook is an open-source tool for building and testing UI components in isolation. Think of it as a dedicated workshop where you can create, preview, and document components in every possible state without spinning up the full application. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Documenting Web Components With Storybook
    Documentation is a crucial part of any design system. There's the aspect of writing, maintaining, and ensuring that it doesn't drift from the codebase. It's a lot of work, and it's easy to let it slip. I've spent a lot of time over the last year and a half thinking about the right way to document components, and it took some time until I found a sustainable solution I was happy with. In this article, I want to... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Pattern Lab and Storybook, you can also consider the following products

Swanky Docs - A simple, flexible and powerful ecosystem for creating beautiful documentation.

styled-components - styled-components is a visual primitive for the component age that also helps the user to use the ES6 and CSS to style apps.

Backlight - Backlight is a unique collaborative platform to build Design Systems code-side.📐 Design tokens🧩 Component code and stories📖 Documentation site📦 Managed release to npmEverything in one place, in a true collaborative workspace.Try 👉 backlight.dev

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

vov.css - A small class-based animation library consisting of small but useful animations.

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces