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Tailwind CSS VS shadcn-ui

Compare Tailwind CSS VS shadcn-ui and see what are their differences

Tailwind CSS logo Tailwind CSS

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

shadcn-ui logo shadcn-ui

A set of beautifully-designed, accessible components and a code distribution platform. Works with your favorite frameworks. Open source. Open code.
  • Tailwind CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • shadcn-ui Landing page
    Landing page //
    2025-06-07

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. Tailwindโ€™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.

shadcn-ui features and specs

  • Customizability
    shadcn-ui offers high levels of customization, allowing developers to tailor components to fit their particular design and functionality needs.
  • Ease of Use
    The library is designed with simplicity in mind, making it user-friendly and easy to integrate into various projects.
  • Modern Design
    shadcn-ui provides a collection of modern and aesthetically pleasing UI components that cater to current design trends.
  • Component Variety
    It features a wide range of components, enabling developers to find the right tools for diverse interface requirements.

Possible disadvantages of shadcn-ui

  • Limited Community Support
    As a relatively new or niche library, it may not have a large community for support and resource sharing compared to more established UI frameworks.
  • Documentation
    If documentation is not comprehensive, users may find it challenging to understand or implement certain features without additional guidance.
  • Performance
    There might be performance trade-offs to consider when using extensive customizability and visually rich components.
  • Potential Overhead
    Depending on the project's complexity, including many UI components could lead to increased bundle sizes and loading times.

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

shadcn-ui videos

No shadcn-ui 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 shadcn-ui)
Developer Tools
98 98%
2% 2
Design Tools
98 98%
2% 2
CSS Framework
96 96%
4% 4
Website Design
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 shadcn-ui

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, youโ€™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 wonโ€™t get impacted. Tailwind requires the least amount of learning and is easy to use. You can...
Source: hackr.io

shadcn-ui Reviews

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tailwind CSS seems to be a lot more popular than shadcn-ui. While we know about 1025 links to Tailwind CSS, we've tracked only 12 mentions of shadcn-ui. 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 (1025)

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shadcn-ui mentions (12)

  • Seamless Forms with shadcn/ui and TanStack Form
    In my post, "Life after Next.js: A New and Sunny Start," I talked about my journey migrating to TanStack Start and the freedom it brought. One of the loose ends I mentioned was the form situation. I'm a big fan of the aesthetics and developer experience of shadcn/ui, but its default form component is built on react-hook-form. As I'm going all-in on the TanStack ecosystem, I naturally wanted to use TanStack Form. - Source: dev.to / 7 days ago
  • Three React MUI commandments
    MUI (or Material UI) is a popular React library for building feature-rich UI. There are many great competitors like Ant Design, Shadcn, and so on. However, MUI is still my preferred choice when I need to create a robust enterprise frontend application. The library has a rich set of components, flexible theming capabilities, and strong accessibility out of the box. - Source: dev.to / 17 days ago
  • Stop Shipping Boring AI-Generated UIs
    Iโ€™ve been experimenting with these AI tools for a while now, and honestly? The UIs they generate are honestly pretty decent! You get working interactions, clean layouts, and some visual polish. But letโ€™s be real: what AI gives you out of the box still needs a little love. Most of them lean heavily on shadcn/ui as the foundation โ€” which is fine, but kind of obvious. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • AI Stack for Solo Developers: Build an Entire Startup with These Tools
    Tools: V0 by Vercel, shadcn/ui, React, Tailwind CSS V0 turns natural language prompts into ready-to-use React + Tailwind UI code. Ask for โ€œa responsive SaaS dashboard with a dark theme and collapsible sidebarโ€ and you get production-ready code instantly, accessible, tweakable, and not locked into rigid templates. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • ๐Ÿงฉ Why Dialog Doesnโ€™t Work When Wrapped with Tooltip in Radix / ShadCN UI (And How to Fix It)
    When working with Radix UI (used under the hood in shadcn/ui), things are usually smooth โ€” composable, accessible, and beautifully engineered. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Tailwind CSS and shadcn-ui, you can also consider the following products

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

Easy UI Pro - Beautifully designed website templates built with React and Tailwind CSS.

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

Shadyx UI - Build sleek, beautiful UIs with Shadyx UI โ€“ a modern and customizable component kit built with Next.js and Tailwind CSS.

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

Shipixen - Create a blog & landing page in minutes