Building Better UIs: Why ShadCN and Radix Are Worth Your Attention
When it comes to building modern, scalable, and visually appealing React applications, ShadCN and Radix are a developer’s best buddies. These tools focus on making your life easier while ensuring your UI is sleek, accessible, and completely in your control. Let’s break them down in a chill, no-fuss way. ShadCN: Not Just Another Library What’s ShadCN? ShadCN isn’t your typical component library or UI framework. It’s more like a collection of reusable components that you can copy and paste directly into your project. Yup, you literally own the code once you paste it into your repo. Why is that cool? No Forced Updates: Your components don’t magically change unless you update them. As long as your dependencies are locked to specific versions, your UI stays rock solid. Future-Proof: Sure, if browsers decide to deprecate something 10 years down the line, you might need to fix it. But hey, that’s an issue with any code. Minimal Logic: ShadCN doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It mostly leans on Radix UI and other libraries for the heavy lifting. Comparison Time ShadCN UI Material UI (MUI) Ant Design GitHub Stars 78k 94k 93k Bundle Size NIL 93.7kb 429kb Components 48 66 65 Maturity Young and fast-growing Established library Established library Best For Small or personal projects Small to large projects Small to large projects Extras to Explore Themes: ShadCN Themes Blocks: ShadCN Blocks Charts: ShadCN Charts // Detect dark theme var iframe = document.getElementById('tweet-1879560380336521537-538'); if (document.body.className.includes('dark-theme')) { iframe.src = "https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1879560380336521537&theme=dark" } Radix: The Backbone of Modern UI What’s Radix UI? Radix is a set of unstyled, accessible UI primitives for React. Think of it as the building blocks for your custom UI components. Launched in November 2020, Radix has quickly gained popularity among developers who love full control over their designs. Why Radix Rocks Accessibility First: It’s built with WAI-ARIA standards, so you don’t have to sweat the small stuff. Highly Composable: You can use just the parts you need without adding unnecessary bloat. Unstyled Freedom: Style your components however you like. Tailwind? Plain CSS? The choice is yours. Real-World Use: Even Vercel uses Radix primitives. (That’s saying something!) Case Studies Check out Radix’s case studies, including Vercel’s implementation. Comparison Time Radix UI Headless UI (Tailwind) Base UI (MUI) GitHub Stars 16k 26k 2k Bundle Size 248b 33.8kb 48.7kb Components 28 10 20 Playground ✅ ❌ ❌ Podcast Alert! Want to know more? Check out Bonus: AI-Generated Components with V0 Did you know about V0? It’s Vercel’s chatbot-like generative AI tool for building UI components. Powered by ShadCN UI and Tailwind CSS, it generates component code based on your prompts. Perfect for when you’re short on time but want sleek, functional components. Final Thoughts ShadCN and Radix make a killer combo for developers who want accessible, customizable, and lightweight components. They’re perfect for personal projects and mostly scalable for larger applications. With ShadCN themes, blocks, and charts, you get a head start on building something awesome. By the way, I used ShadCN to build LiveAPI—a Super-Convenient API Docs Generation tool for backend developers to generate API documentation with just a few clicks. It’s just 2-4 clicks and doesn’t require installing Swagger or writing docs manually. Check it out! Vite vs. Webpack: The JavaScript Bundler Showdown Athreya aka Maneshwar ・ Jan 10 #webdev #javascript #programming #beginners
When it comes to building modern, scalable, and visually appealing React applications, ShadCN and Radix are a developer’s best buddies.
These tools focus on making your life easier while ensuring your UI is sleek, accessible, and completely in your control. Let’s break them down in a chill, no-fuss way.
ShadCN: Not Just Another Library
What’s ShadCN?
ShadCN isn’t your typical component library or UI framework.
It’s more like a collection of reusable components that you can copy and paste directly into your project.
Yup, you literally own the code once you paste it into your repo.
Why is that cool?
- No Forced Updates: Your components don’t magically change unless you update them. As long as your dependencies are locked to specific versions, your UI stays rock solid.
- Future-Proof: Sure, if browsers decide to deprecate something 10 years down the line, you might need to fix it. But hey, that’s an issue with any code.
- Minimal Logic: ShadCN doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It mostly leans on Radix UI and other libraries for the heavy lifting.
Comparison Time
| ShadCN UI | Material UI (MUI) | Ant Design | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Stars | 78k | 94k | 93k |
| Bundle Size | NIL | 93.7kb | 429kb |
| Components | 48 | 66 | 65 |
| Maturity | Young and fast-growing | Established library | Established library |
| Best For | Small or personal projects | Small to large projects | Small to large projects |
Extras to Explore
Themes: ShadCN Themes
Blocks: ShadCN Blocks
Charts: ShadCN Charts
// Detect dark theme var iframe = document.getElementById('tweet-1879560380336521537-538'); if (document.body.className.includes('dark-theme')) { iframe.src = "https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=1879560380336521537&theme=dark" }
Radix: The Backbone of Modern UI
What’s Radix UI?
Radix is a set of unstyled, accessible UI primitives for React.
Think of it as the building blocks for your custom UI components.
Launched in November 2020, Radix has quickly gained popularity among developers who love full control over their designs.
Why Radix Rocks
- Accessibility First: It’s built with WAI-ARIA standards, so you don’t have to sweat the small stuff.
- Highly Composable: You can use just the parts you need without adding unnecessary bloat.
- Unstyled Freedom: Style your components however you like. Tailwind? Plain CSS? The choice is yours.
- Real-World Use: Even Vercel uses Radix primitives. (That’s saying something!)
Case Studies
Check out Radix’s case studies, including Vercel’s implementation.
Comparison Time
| Radix UI | Headless UI (Tailwind) | Base UI (MUI) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Stars | 16k | 26k | 2k |
| Bundle Size | 248b | 33.8kb | 48.7kb |
| Components | 28 | 10 | 20 |
| Playground | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
Podcast Alert!
Want to know more? Check out
Bonus: AI-Generated Components with V0
Did you know about V0? It’s Vercel’s chatbot-like generative AI tool for building UI components.
Powered by ShadCN UI and Tailwind CSS, it generates component code based on your prompts.
Perfect for when you’re short on time but want sleek, functional components.
Final Thoughts
ShadCN and Radix make a killer combo for developers who want accessible, customizable, and lightweight components.
They’re perfect for personal projects and mostly scalable for larger applications.
With ShadCN themes, blocks, and charts, you get a head start on building something awesome.
By the way, I used ShadCN to build LiveAPI—a Super-Convenient API Docs Generation tool for backend developers to generate API documentation with just a few clicks.
It’s just 2-4 clicks and doesn’t require installing Swagger or writing docs manually. Check it out!
