Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups
Register | Login

Tailwind CSS VS Spectre.css

Compare Tailwind CSS VS Spectre.css and see what are their differences

ASocks
Clear, Fast & Unlimited. Residential & Mobile Proxies For Best Price. featured
Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

Tailwind CSS logo Tailwind CSS

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

Spectre.css logo Spectre.css

Lightweight, responsive and modern CSS framework for faster and extensible development.
  • Tailwind CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • Spectre.css Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17

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.

Spectre.css features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Spectre.css is designed to be minimal with a small footprint of just 10KB gzipped, making it fast to load and reducing the overall size of your project.
  • Modern Design
    It offers a clean and responsive design out of the box that aligns well with modern web design trends, providing a good base for building attractive user interfaces.
  • Flexbox Based
    Built using Flexbox, Spectre.css provides a powerful grid system and simplifies the layout creation process for responsive design.
  • Component Rich
    The framework includes a variety of pre-designed components such as buttons, forms, cards, and modals that can significantly speed up development.
  • Ease of Use
    The classes and components are intuitively named and easy to use, making it accessible even for developers who are new to CSS frameworks.
  • Modular Architecture
    Spectre.css features a modular approach, allowing developers to include only the parts they need, which can further optimize performance.

Possible disadvantages of Spectre.css

  • Limited Community
    Comparatively, Spectre.css has a smaller user base and community support than more established frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation, which can affect the availability of third-party tutorials, plugins, and resources.
  • Fewer Features
    While it provides essential components, it lacks some of the more advanced features and extensive component libraries available in larger frameworks.
  • Customization Complexity
    Customizing Spectre.css beyond basic adjustments may require a deeper understanding of its underlying CSS and structure, posing a challenge for some developers.
  • Integration with JavaScript Libraries
    Spectre.css does not include built-in JavaScript functionality, meaning developers will need to implement or integrate their own JavaScript solutions for interactive components.
  • Documentation
    Although the documentation is clear, it is not as comprehensive as that of some other major frameworks, which might leave some gaps for users requiring more detailed guidance.

Analysis of Spectre.css

Overall verdict

  • Spectre.css is considered a good choice for projects that require a minimalist approach and where performance is a priority. It is particularly praised for its small size and easy customization.

Why this product is good

  • Spectre.css is a lightweight and responsive CSS framework that focuses on simplicity and minimalism. It offers a clean design, easy-to-use components, and a grid system, making it a great choice for developers who want to create fast, responsive websites without the complexity of larger frameworks.

Recommended for

    Developers looking to build simple, responsive web applications or websites, especially when they want to avoid the bloat of larger frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation. It's ideal for projects where speed and minimalism are key considerations.

Tailwind CSS videos

+ Add

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

Spectre.css videos

+ Add

Tutoriel : Le framework html - css Spectre.css - YouTube

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Tutoriel Spectre.css : La grille responsive - YouTube

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Tailwind CSS and Spectre.css)

Tailwind CSS

Spectre.css

Developer Tools
97 97%
Developer Tools
3% 3
Design Tools
95 95%
Design Tools
5% 5
CSS Framework
86 86%
CSS Framework
14% 14
Web Frameworks
100 100%
Web Frameworks
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Tailwind CSS and Spectre.css. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

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

Tailwind CSS Reviews

  1. pat0rick
    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.
Source: www.wearedevelopers.com
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

Spectre.css Reviews

22 Best Bootstrap Alternatives & What Each Is Best For
SPECTRE.CSS offers a range of utilities for layout, typography, and interface components like buttons, forms, and cards. It's built with flexbox, providing responsive layouts and components. Though SPECTRE.CSS doesn't explicitly integrate with other tools, it's designed with modularity in mind, making it compatible with many modern web development tools and workflows.
Source: thectoclub.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tailwind CSS seems to be a lot more popular than Spectre.css. While we know about 1016 links to Tailwind CSS, we've tracked only 4 mentions of Spectre.css. 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 / 8 days 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 / 24 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 / 25 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 2 months 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
View more

Spectre.css mentions (4)

  • Remult: Build a type-safe, full-stack app with TypeScript
    In this guide, we’ll create a simple booking form and we’ll store the form submissions in a MongoDB collection. We'll build the UI using React and then add styling with Spectre.css. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Cross Platform Rust GUI Desktop Apps - Getting Started with Tauri & ReactJS
    I used spectre CSS and it worked pretty well Https://picturepan2.github.io/spectre/. Source: over 3 years ago
  • 23 Responsive And Lightweight CSS Frameworks
    Spectre.css is among the best lightweight CSS frameworks for the rapid and extensible development of websites. It is not only lightweight but also a responsive framework. All sets of modules are packed in 10kb gzipped. It is flexbox-based, gracefully designed, and has advanced elements and components. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
  • An Overview of My Sinatra Project for Flatiron
    In order to pass the Sinatra project lab, all functionality listed in the requirements must be present - but this still leaves a lot of room for improvement. Specifically when it comes to application design. CRUD Pokedex is styled using a very basic CSS framework called Spectre.css, but it needs to be polished to achieve a more cohesive, professional look. - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Tailwind CSS and Spectre.css, you can also consider the following products

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

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.

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

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

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

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

Loading...