Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Tailwind CSS VS Elementor

Compare Tailwind CSS VS Elementor and see what are their differences

Tailwind CSS logo Tailwind CSS

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

Elementor logo Elementor

Elementor is a front-end drag & drop page builder for WordPress.
  • Tailwind CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • Elementor Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-04

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.

Elementor features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Elementor features a drag-and-drop interface that is user-friendly for both beginners and experienced developers, making website building straightforward and intuitive.
  • Design Flexibility
    With a wide range of design options, templates, and widgets, Elementor offers extensive customization capabilities. Users can easily create highly unique and professional-looking designs.
  • Integration Capabilities
    Elementor integrates well with many popular WordPress plugins and themes, enhancing its functionality and allowing for easy addition of various features.
  • Responsive Design
    Elementor provides tools to ensure that websites look great on all devices, with built-in responsive design settings that allow customization for different screen sizes.
  • Regular Updates
    The Elementor team frequently releases updates and new features, continuously improving and expanding the platform's capabilities.

Possible disadvantages of Elementor

  • Performance Issues
    Elementor can sometimes lead to slower website performance, particularly if many widgets and third-party plugins are used simultaneously, which can affect load times.
  • Premium Features
    While the free version of Elementor is robust, many advanced functionalities and widgets are only available in the Pro version, which requires a paid subscription.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its ease of use, new users may still face a learning curve due to the sheer number of customization options and features available.
  • Theme Compatibility
    Elementor may not be fully compatible with all WordPress themes, which can result in design conflicts or require additional customization.
  • Limited SEO Tools
    While Elementor offers basic SEO settings, it lacks some of the more advanced SEO tools found in specialized plugins, necessitating the use of additional SEO plugins.

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

Elementor videos

Elementor Page Builder Plugin -- I was WRONG!!

More videos:

  • Review - Elementor Experts: All You Need to Know
  • Review - Elementor Pro Review - #1 Best Page Builder Plugin For WordPress? [INSIDE VIEW + SPEED TEST]
  • Review - Elementor Experts vs Jetpack Pros? WordPress freelancers rejoice! 😲
  • Review - Introducing Elementor Experts: The New Discovery Network For Web Creators
  • Tutorial - Elementor Page Builder Pro Review and Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Tailwind CSS and Elementor)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Website Builder
0 0%
100% 100
Design Tools
100 100%
0% 0
CMS
0 0%
100% 100

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 Elementor

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

Elementor Reviews

Top 9 Elementor Alternatives in 2023
Elementor is an effective page-building tool, but it won’t suit everyone’s needs. Especially if you need more than one license, Elementor Pro plans can be expensive. Plus, it might not be optimized for your specific WordPress theme. When these issues arise, it can be beneficial to find an alternative tool.
Source: kinsta.com
7 Best Elementor Alternatives 2023
First off, if you’re looking for the best free Elementor alternative, then I would recommend starting with Brizy. While there are some other plugins on this list that offer free versions, Brizy’s free version is the closest to offering the same level of flexibility that Elementor’s free version offers. With the premium version, Brizy can also offer a number of features that...
Source: athemes.com
5 Best Elementor Alternatives for Building Beautiful Websites
In general, WordPress themes can be a good Elementor alternative if you’re primarily looking for an alternative to Elementor Theme Builder. A customizable one can give you a similar level of flexibility in a simpler package. Some, like the Neve theme on our list, even offer lightweight drag-and-drop header and footer builders.
Source: themeisle.com
22 Best Free Portfolio Website Builders 2021
Elementor is a versatile page editor that comes applicable to all WordPress users. If this is your CMS (content management system) of choice, do unlock even more possibilities for yourself with a powerful and free portfolio website builder. You can adjust and modify existing web design or you can easily come up with custom layouts that best resonates with you. Again, it’s...
Source: colorlib.com
10 Best Elementor Alternatives
Elementor is a leading WordPress page builder for building eCommerce websites and landing pages.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tailwind CSS seems to be a lot more popular than Elementor. While we know about 1013 links to Tailwind CSS, we've tracked only 61 mentions of Elementor. 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 / 10 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 / 15 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 / 23 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 / about 1 month 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

Elementor mentions (61)

  • A list of SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings that have free tiers of interest to devops and infradev
    Elementor — WordPress website builder. Free plan available with 40+ Basic Widgets. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • 400+ Websites That I Use as a Web Designer/Freelancer - All Compiled and Categorized in One Place
    Elementor - As much as I hate Elementor after getting used to Webflow, it deserves a praise. You can build so much stuff with little-to-no knowledge with it on Wordpress. (One of My Favorites). Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Best Website Builder? looking for reddit suggestions!
    Elementor is a fantastic plugin for WordPress that takes website building to the next level. It offers a visual, drag-and-drop editor that empowers you to create stunning and dynamic websites without any coding knowledge, I been creating some very cool websites with this plugin and wordpress and it been working well for me. I like to be able to have more control over my sites and unlike stuff like wix or shopify,... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Classic Themes with Block Patterns in WordPress
    WordPress is celebrating its 20th anniversary and it still powers millions of websites all over the world, so we can say that's an open-source software success story. The "WordPress multiverse" has been fragmented for a long time, due to a multitude of possible combinations of plugins and page builders like Elementor? But efforts to unify mainstream development and obsolete page builders doing full-site editing... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Seeking feedback on website & demo reels
    Regarding your theme 'Pixova Lite,' it hasn't been updated in more than 2 years. You might want to think about getting one that is actively maintained. Take a look at a page builder like Elementor. You'll have a lot more flexibility with design. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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

WiX - Create a free website with Wix.com. Customize with Wix' website builder, no coding skills needed. Choose a design, begin customizing and be online today

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.

SquareSpace - Squarespace is the easiest way for anyone to create an exceptional website. Pages, galleries, blogs, e-commerce, domains, hosting, analytics, 24/7 support - all included.

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

WordPress.com - Create a free website or build a blog with ease on WordPress.com. Dozens of free, customizable, mobile-ready designs and themes. Free hosting and support.