Shadcn UI diverges from conventional UI and component libraries such as Material UI and Chakra UI. While those libraries provide access to components via their bundled packages, Shadcn UI takes a unique approach by enabling users to directly incorporate the source code of individual UI components into their codebase.
What is Shadcn UI?
Shadcn UI, a collection of reusable components by Shadcn, offers easy integration into applications, utilizing Tailwind CSS and Radix UI. With support for various frameworks and rapid adoption, including by Vercel, it has gained significant popularity, boasting over 34.5k GitHub stars and 1 million page views. Notably, its creator’s recruitment by Vercel further solidifies its standing.
Benefits of Shadcn UI
Shadcn UI provides several benefits compared to other component libraries. Here are the most significant:
- Ease of use: Shadcn UI is easily navigable for anyone with a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and one or more frameworks. Its components can be installed using the CLI or copied and pasted. Shadcn UI is comparable to other component libraries I’ve used, such as Material UI and Chakra UI.
- Accessibility: All of Shadcn UI’s components follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) guidelines and are completely accessible. Keyboard navigation, screen readers, and other accessibility features are supported. Shadcn UI allows you to design apps that are both aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly for all users.
- Fine-grained control and extensibility: Shadcn UI provides direct access to each component’s source code, so you can easily adjust the code to fit unique use cases and application needs. This ease of customization helps Shadcn UI stand out among other UI solutions and makes it a delight to work with. Easy access to component code also improves flexibility and makes it easier to scale and maintain applications
Caveats
There are a couple of things you should know before deciding whether to use Shadcn UI in future projects.
First, having to manually install or copy every component that you need can be a hassle. This extra step is not a big issue, but can add more stress to the developer experience, particularly for those who are used to importing components from a package.
Second, while having direct access to components’ code is beneficial in terms of modularity and extensibility, it also results in a larger codebase with more lines of code.
Conclusion
Shadcn UI offers developers a fresh approach to crafting visually appealing interfaces with flexibility and control over components. Its growing adoption, including by major players like Vercel, suggests it could become a prominent choice in frontend development. As a relatively new solution, it holds promise for further expansion with the addition of more components over time. What’s your take on this tool? Would you consider using it in your projects, or are you already onboard? Share your thoughts below!