Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Tailwind CSS VS Principle

Compare Tailwind CSS VS Principle and see what are their differences

Tailwind CSS logo Tailwind CSS

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

Principle logo Principle

Principle makes it easy to create animated and interactive user interface designs.
  • Tailwind CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • Principle Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-19

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.

Principle features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Principle offers a highly intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced designers.
  • Powerful Animation Features
    The tool supports complex animations and interactive designs, enabling designers to create rich and engaging prototypes.
  • Responsive Preview
    Principle provides real-time previews of your designs on actual devices, allowing designers to see exactly how their work will look and behave.
  • Import from Sketch and Figma
    Users can easily import designs from popular design tools like Sketch and Figma, streamlining the workflow.
  • High-Fidelity Prototyping
    Capable of producing high-fidelity prototypes that closely resemble the final product, making it ideal for user testing and presentations.

Possible disadvantages of Principle

  • Mac-Only
    Principle is exclusively available for macOS, which limits its accessibility for designers using Windows or other operating systems.
  • Cost
    The software comes with a significant price tag, potentially making it less accessible for freelancers or small teams with limited budgets.
  • Lack of Collaboration Features
    Unlike some other tools, Principle lacks advanced collaboration features, making it difficult for teams to work simultaneously on a project.
  • Limited Cloud Integration
    Principle does not offer extensive cloud integration options, which can hinder version control and file sharing across teams.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While the basic interface is user-friendly, mastering its more advanced animation and interaction features can take time.

Analysis of Principle

Overall verdict

  • Principle is generally regarded as a good tool for designers, especially those who need to prototype interactive and animated designs. Its robust feature set and user-friendly design make it a preferred choice among many UI/UX professionals.

Why this product is good

  • Principle is a popular prototyping tool for Mac users, known for its intuitive interface and powerful features. It allows designers to create animated and interactive user interface designs efficiently. Users often praise it for its ease of use and the ability to quickly bring design concepts to life. Offering features such as timeline animations, multi-screen interactions, and the ability to import designs from Sketch, it makes the design workflow more streamlined.

Recommended for

  • UI/UX designers looking for a Mac-compatible prototyping tool
  • Designers familiar with Sketch who want to easily import their designs
  • Professionals needing to create high-fidelity animations and interactions
  • Teams looking to demonstrate design concepts through interactive prototypes

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

Principle videos

The Talos Principle (Review)

More videos:

  • Review - American Scandi Gerber Principle Knife
  • Review - The Talos Principle (Zero Punctuation)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Tailwind CSS and Principle)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Prototyping
0 0%
100% 100
Design Tools
95 95%
5% 5
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 Tailwind CSS and Principle

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

Principle Reviews

11 Best Prototyping Tools For UI/UX Designers — How To Choose The Right One?
Principle is built for OS X and comes with an iOS app to mirror live prototypes. Whether you’re designing the flow of a multi-screen app, or new interactions and animations, Principle lets you create designs that look and feel amazing. The app appears very much like the UI of Sketch including other familiar aspects of alignment, art board creation, and screen connections,...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tailwind CSS seems to be a lot more popular than Principle. While we know about 1016 links to Tailwind CSS, we've tracked only 8 mentions of Principle. 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 (1016)

  • MailPlanet🌍: Visualize email origins on a global map
    Styling: Tailwind CSS (Assumed, common with Next.js). - Source: dev.to / about 15 hours ago
  • How to add markdown to a Next.js project
    This article assumes the reader is a developer that knows their way around Markdown, TypeScript, React.js, and [Next.js] https://nextjs.org/). Familiarity with Tailwind-css would also be useful. - Source: dev.to / 17 days ago
  • SonicScan - A Music Fingerprinting and Identification App
    Then I learned Tauri and used my favourite frontend framework SolidJS with TailwindCSS and DaisyUI to build the UI with MotionOne to add animations and Tauri to build the desktop/web/android/ios app. - Source: dev.to / 18 days ago
  • 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 / about 1 month 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 / about 2 months ago
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Principle mentions (8)

  • What app was used to design this animated image?
    Seeing how principle is on the list. I'm going to say principle. It's like after effect but for interface design. Source: over 2 years ago
  • A mobile shopping app we just finished
    However, I did manage to make a very simple animation with my very limited skills for another project using Principle. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How to use animations to increase conversion
    Your visitors will scan your hero image or graphic first. Take advantage of that. Create subtle animations that explain better your product or offer. How will the interface be used? How simple it is? Keep it simple. I use Principle or Figma smart animate feature. If it's too complicated for you it might be very easy for a designer. Hire one for a small gig. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • New prototype: What if Tesla had an App Store?
    I use Figma & Principle to design & prototype, usually. I show a bit of the process on my YouTube channel, if you're interested. Source: over 3 years ago
  • I made an eyes-free gesture prototype — thoughts?
    No engineering here, just smoke & mirrors! This is a set of mockups stitched together with Principle into a prototype that runs on my iPad. It uses simple keyframing for most animations and is configured to react to different touch targets. Not a single line of code was harmed in the making of this prototype ;). Source: over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

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

ProtoPie - ProtoPie is the easiest tool used to turn your UI/UX design ideas into highly interactive prototypes for mobile, desktop, web, all the way to IoT.

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.

Adobe XD - Adobe XD is an all-in-one UX/UI solution for designing websites, mobile apps and more. 

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

UXpin - Design is really about solving problems. UXPin is the UX Design Platform that gets that right.