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Tailwind CSS VS Storybook

Compare Tailwind CSS VS Storybook and see what are their differences

Tailwind CSS logo Tailwind CSS

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

Storybook logo Storybook

Storybook is an open source tool for developing UI components in isolation for React, Vue, and Angular. It makes building stunning UIs organized and efficient.
  • Tailwind CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • Storybook Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21

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.

Storybook features and specs

  • Component Isolation
    Storybook allows developers to isolate components from the main application, making it easier to develop and debug individual components without dealing with the app's entire context.
  • Live Component Demos
    Storybook provides real-time, interactive demos of components. This is especially useful for showcasing components to non-technical stakeholders or for internal documentation.
  • Improved Documentation
    Storybook's interface allows for comprehensive documentation of components, including their states and variations, which improves team communication and onboarding processes.
  • Supports Multiple Frameworks
    Storybook is framework-agnostic and supports popular JavaScript frameworks and libraries, including React, Vue, Angular, and more.
  • Addons and Plugins
    There is a large ecosystem of addons and plugins that extend Storybook's functionality, such as accessibility checking, design tool integration, and performance testing.
  • Hot Module Replacement (HMR)
    Storybook supports HMR, providing instant feedback on code changes without requiring a full page reload, thereby speeding up the development process.

Possible disadvantages of Storybook

  • Initial Setup and Configuration
    Setting up Storybook for the first time can be complex and time-consuming, especially for large projects with unique configurations.
  • Overhead for Small Projects
    For very small projects or simple components, using Storybook might add unnecessary overhead, both in terms of setup and ongoing maintenance.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a learning curve associated with Storybook, particularly for developers who are not familiar with component-driven development or have limited experience with UI libraries.
  • Performance Issues
    For extremely large projects, Storybook can sometimes experience performance issues, primarily due to the volume of components and stories being processed.
  • Dependency Management
    Storybook introduces additional dependencies to a project, which can complicate dependency management and version conflicts.
  • Context and Global State
    Managing global states, contexts, or inter-component interactions can be challenging in Storybook, as it isolates components from the larger application context.

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

Storybook videos

Disney's Cinderella Deluxe Storybook Review

More videos:

  • Review - Disney's Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs Deluxe Storybook Review
  • Review - Disney Frozen The Story of Anna and Elsa Deluxe Storybook Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Tailwind CSS and Storybook)
Developer Tools
92 92%
8% 8
Design Tools
93 93%
7% 7
React
0 0%
100% 100
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 Storybook

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

Storybook Reviews

20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
Storybook is free, open-source, and one of the best JavaScript frameworks for creating separate UI elements and testing. For UI development, UI testing, and documentation, it is used by thousands of teams. It is simpler to find and repair issues with the components when developers use Storybook to construct a catalog and interact with them in a live environment.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tailwind CSS should be more popular than Storybook. It has been mentiond 1017 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 (1017)

  • Selfish reasons for building accessible UIs
    > When I’m trying to debug a web app, it’s hard to orient myself in the DevTools if the entire UI is “div soup” That’s tame. Try adding some Tailwind CSS. After monitoring Tailwind CSS since its early days, and believing I had some pretty serious philosophical disagreements with it, I recently took an opportunity to try it out in earnest, and it is so mindbogglingly obnoxious in dev tools that... - Source: Hacker News / 1 day ago
  • MailPlanet🌍: Visualize email origins on a global map
    Styling: Tailwind CSS (Assumed, common with Next.js). - Source: dev.to / 10 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 / 26 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 / 27 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
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Storybook mentions (225)

  • Monorepo Tutorial With Lerna, Storybook & Next.js
    In this tutorial, you'll learn how to build a monorepo using Lerna. We’ll be building a Next.js application which will import components from a separate package. We’ll also be using Storybook to showcase those components. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • UmiJS: the Shaolin of web frameworks
    Dumi. A static site generator specifically designed for component library development. Look at it as something between Storybook and Docusaurus inside the Umi world (but much better integrated between each other, presumably). - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Screenshot testing: Gotta Catch 'Em All
    Import type { Meta, StoryObj } from '@storybook/react'; Import { fn } from '@storybook/test'; Import { Button } from './Button'; // More on how to set up stories at: https://storybook.js.org/docs/writing-stories#default-export Const meta = { title: 'Example/Button', component: Button, parameters: { // Optional parameter to center the component in the Canvas. More info:... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Storybook Starter Guide: Learn Design System Principles
    Storybook is an open-source tool for building and testing UI components in isolation. Think of it as a dedicated workshop where you can create, preview, and document components in every possible state without spinning up the full application. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Documenting Web Components With Storybook
    Documentation is a crucial part of any design system. There's the aspect of writing, maintaining, and ensuring that it doesn't drift from the codebase. It's a lot of work, and it's easy to let it slip. I've spent a lot of time over the last year and a half thinking about the right way to document components, and it took some time until I found a sustainable solution I was happy with. In this article, I want to... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

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

styled-components - styled-components is a visual primitive for the component age that also helps the user to use the ES6 and CSS to style apps.

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

Ant Design - An enterprise-class UI design language and React implementation with a set of high-quality React components, one of best React UI library for enterprises

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