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Tailwind CSS VS Cirrus CSS

Compare Tailwind CSS VS Cirrus CSS and see what are their differences

Tailwind CSS logo Tailwind CSS

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

Cirrus CSS logo Cirrus CSS

The SCSS framework for the modern web. It's component based, customizable, and completely open source.
  • Tailwind CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • Cirrus CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-08-03

Cirrus is a modular, responsive, and component centric SCSS framework aimed at bringing beautiful, hassle-free styling. Cirrus works right away with minimal styling. From there, add components and tweak using utility classes to make it truly your own.

Tailwind CSS features and specs

  • Utility-First Approach
    Tailwind CSS uses a utility-first approach, promoting the use of small, reusable utility classes to style elements directly in your markup. This can lead to more readable and maintainable HTML.
  • Customization
    The framework is highly customizable. You can easily configure its default theme, add your extensions, and create custom utilities. Tailwind’s config file allows for deep customization of all aspects of the framework.
  • Consistent Design
    Using utility classes ensures design consistency because the same classes will apply the same styles globally.
  • Responsive Design
    Tailwind CSS has excellent built-in support for responsive design. You can easily apply different styles for different screen sizes using responsive utility variants.
  • Performance
    Tailwind purges unused CSS in production, resulting in smaller final output files and improved performance.
  • Integrates Well with Frameworks
    Tailwind CSS integrates smoothly with modern JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular.
  • JIT Compiler
    The Just-in-Time (JIT) mode in Tailwind CSS generates styles on-demand, reducing the development build sizes and speeding up the development process.

Possible disadvantages of Tailwind CSS

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For developers coming from traditional CSS or other CSS frameworks, getting used to Tailwind's utility-first approach may take some time.
  • HTML Congestion
    Due to the utility-first approach, HTML files can get filled with numerous utility classes, making it look cluttered and harder to read.
  • Initial Setup
    Setting up Tailwind CSS initially can be complex, especially for beginners. Configuration settings and integrations with build tools can be confusing.
  • Verbosity
    Some developers find the inline utility classes verbose, particularly when complex styles are required, which can lead to bloated template files.
  • Limited Abstractions
    Tailwind doesn't provide higher-level abstractions such as components out of the box, like other frameworks (e.g., Bootstrap) do. Developers need to build and maintain these abstractions themselves.
  • Dependency Tailoring
    While Tailwind aims to be minimalistic, it may enforce some dependencies or build tool integrations that could be unnecessary for very simple projects.

Cirrus CSS features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Cirrus CSS is designed to be lightweight, meaning it doesn't add a lot of overhead to your web project, which can result in faster loading times.
  • Responsive Design
    The framework includes responsive utilities that make it easier to create mobile-friendly designs with minimal effort.
  • Modern Look
    Cirrus offers a modern aesthetic with a collection of design elements that can give your project a contemporary appearance.
  • Ease of Use
    The framework is simple to set up and integrate into projects, allowing developers to get started quickly without extensive configuration.
  • Customization
    Cirrus CSS offers customization options that allow developers to tailor styles and designs to their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of Cirrus CSS

  • Limited Ecosystem
    Compared to larger frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation, Cirrus has a smaller user base and fewer community resources.
  • Learning Curve
    For developers familiar with other CSS frameworks, there may be a learning curve as they adjust to Cirrus's classes and utilities.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    As a smaller framework, Cirrus might not be compatible with some third-party plugins and components built for more widely-used frameworks.
  • Less Documentation
    Cirrus CSS may have fewer or less detailed documentation and tutorials compared to more established CSS frameworks.
  • Limited Features
    Some advanced features available in larger frameworks might be missing, which could be a drawback for projects requiring those capabilities.

Tailwind CSS videos

Why I Don't Like Tailwind CSS

More videos:

  • Review - Vanilla CSS vs Bootstrap vs Tailwind CSS - Which one should you choose?
  • Review - Get Started with Tailwind CSS in 15 Minutes

Cirrus CSS videos

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

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Tailwind CSS and Cirrus CSS)
Developer Tools
99 99%
1% 1
CSS Framework
91 91%
9% 9
Design Tools
97 97%
3% 3
Frontend Development
0 0%
100% 100

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Tailwind CSS and Cirrus CSS.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Cirrus CSS's answer:

Cirrus is possible thanks to open source contributors on Dart Sass and True (Sass unit testing framework).

What makes your product unique?

Cirrus CSS's answer:

There are often debates on whether component-centric frameworks such as Bootstrap or atomic-classed frameworks such as Tailwind are better for its: - Learning curve - Maintainability - Flexibility - Ease of use

I am a fan of both frameworks as they have their strengths depending on the situation. With component-based frameworks, it is quite easy to slap a couple of different elements together and you have a working website. However, customization may require writing lots of other CSS yourself which takes time away from building your product. Utility-class-based frameworks offer customization that is as granular as it gets short of writing the CSS yourself but without the overhead. A major drawback is that being able to customize and use tree shaking requires direct integration of Tailwind into your project and a CDN version is not feasible for production.

Cirrus is a framework that takes the best parts of both of these types of frameworks and provides: - Many pre-built basic components to accelerate your development velocity (e.g. Avatars, Modals, Tabs, etc.). To keep your code clean, all component classes are built following the BEM convention. - A suite of common utility classes to help tweak and polish your designs when needed. These utility classes are so powerful that you can construct components with them alone. - Different CDN builds of the framework that can be dropped in at any browser (core, ext, all). Choose one that fits your needs.

With the release of 0.7, much of the framework can now be customized. Since the framework is written entirely in SCSS, it can take advantage of all the existing APIs for class generation. The new configuration system in Cirrus allows you to: - Add/Edit/Delete component styles. - Add/Edit/Delete utility classes. - Specify which breakpoints are supported. - Toggle which classes should have viewport variants (to help save on build size). - Enable/Disable different parts of the framework. - And more :)

What's the story behind your product?

Cirrus CSS's answer:

Started in late 2016, Cirrus was built as a side project of mine to foray into web development. Since then it has grown immensely with the addition of components, more utility classes, CSS grid, etc. My main goal for this framework is to make web development as painless as possible -- and that always starts with great documentation and consistency in design choices.

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Tailwind CSS and Cirrus CSS

Tailwind CSS Reviews

  1. Awesome framework

    I use it in all my current projects. It's easy to start and very customisable. Love it so much! I improved the speed of development 2x times by using Tailwind.


22 Best Bootstrap Alternatives & What Each Is Best For
Tailwind CSS comes with features such as responsive design, customizability, hover, focus, and active states out of the box. These enable developers to build sophisticated, interactive interfaces with ease. When it comes to integrations, Tailwind CSS can be integrated with popular front-end frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular, enhancing its utility across different...
Source: thectoclub.com
15 Top Bootstrap Alternatives For Frontend Developers in 2024
If you want to learn the valuable skill of Tailwind CSS, we highly recommend taking the "Tailwind CSS From Scratch" course by Brad Traversy on Udemy. In this introductory course, you will build great-looking layouts quickly and efficiently using Tailwind CSS utility classes.
Source: coursesity.com
10 Best Free React UI Libraries in 2023
TailwindCSS is a utility-first CSS framework designed to build modern and beautiful websites in no time. Here, utility class names define what to do. Each utility class comes with pre-defined CSS properties.
11 Best Material UI Alternatives
Tailwind CSS promotes a modular approach to styling, where devs can combine classes to create unique and responsive designs. It offers utilities for layout, typography, colors, spacing, and more, allowing developers to create consistent and visually appealing interfaces with minimal effort.
Source: www.uxpin.com
Top 10 Best CSS Frameworks for Front-End Developers in 2022
Tailwind enables faster development of the front-end. Instead of a default theme or built-in UI components, you’d get pre-designed widget menus and utility classes to build your website. Tailwind has modular components, and if you make changes in one place, other parts of your code won’t get impacted. Tailwind requires the least amount of learning and is easy to use. You can...
Source: hackr.io

Cirrus CSS Reviews

15 Top Bootstrap Alternatives For Frontend Developers in 2024
Regarding its extensive suite of components, Cirrus not only provides base styles for page layouts but also a variety of different components. It works immediately with minimal styling. From there, you can add components and customize using utility classes to truly make it your own.
Source: coursesity.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tailwind CSS seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1013 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.

Tailwind CSS mentions (1013)

  • Top 5 Free React UI Libraries to Use in 2025
    Shadcn/ui contains a set of beautifully designed and accessible components, and it works seamlessly with major React frameworks. It’s open-source and has amassed 85.5k (and counting) GitHub stars. It’s built on the shoulders of giants — Radix UI and Tailwind CSS, making it one of the best to work with. Unlike many other UI libraries, the components are not just installed as npm modules, they’re downloaded into... - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • Tailwind vs Linaria: Performance Investigation
    We're going to investigate the difference in performance between Tailwind and Linaria. Tailwind, you already know. And Linaria has been getting quite a lot of traction since styled components went into maintenance mode recently. We'll cover why Linaria is a good choice for this comparison a bit further. - Source: dev.to / 9 days ago
  • How to Integrate Tailwind with 11ty – With Code Examples
    It is a well-known fact that Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework. It lets you style elements directly within your HTML, thanks to pre-defined classes. Unlike other CSS frameworks that offer pre-built components, Tailwind offers these low-level utility classes that let you create your own design system. Thus, this makes crafting unique responsive designs effortless as there is not much to do with custom CSS. - Source: dev.to / 17 days ago
  • 🎨 Smooth UI Transitions in HTML with Grains.js, TailwindCSS and g-class directive
    Note: It's best to utilize TailwindCSS to use ready-made styles via their classes. g-class directive has nothing to do with TailwindCSS, however. It only switches class names based on state. After that, you can use whatever you want. - Source: dev.to / 28 days ago
  • ## Vibe Coding Adventures: Day 1 — HealthLens AI
    By having the AI building the skeleton of the project, I learn few things. First, this tool is fantastic for building impressive frontend applications with clean, well-structured Tailwind CSS styling. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
View more

Cirrus CSS mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Cirrus CSS yet. Tracking of Cirrus CSS recommendations started around Aug 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Tailwind CSS and Cirrus CSS, you can also consider the following products

Bootstrap - Simple and flexible HTML, CSS, and JS for popular UI components and interactions

Semantic UI - A UI Component library implemented using a set of specifications designed around natural language

Bulma - Bulma is an open source CSS framework based on Flexbox and built with Sass. It's 100% responsive, fully modular, and available for free.

Materialize CSS - A modern responsive front-end framework based on Material Design

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

Foundation - The most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world