9 tools you can use instead of shadcn/ui, ranked by live GitHub stars and npm downloads. Tailwind CSS, Radix UI and Material UI are the most used. Stats updated 16 hours ago.
shadcn/ui is an open source collection of accessible, customizable UI components for React, distributed as source code you copy into your own project via a CLI rather than installed as a traditional npm dependency. It's built with Tailwind CSS for styling and, as of July 2026, uses Base UI as its default underlying primitives library instead of Radix UI, though Radix remains fully supported as an option. It's free and MIT-licensed.
It is a weaker choice for:
Most used first.
Utility-first CSS framework for building custom designs directly in markup, now owned by Shopify.
Unstyled, accessible React component primitives for building your own design system.
React component library implementing Google's Material Design, with free core and paid MUI X components.
Enterprise-focused React component library and design system, maintained by Alibaba's Ant Group.
Unstyled, accessible UI components from the Tailwind CSS team, for React and Vue.
Full-featured, styled React component library with over 100 components and hooks.
Styled, accessible React component library with a simple, composable styling API.
Component class plugin for Tailwind CSS, adding semantic component names like btn and card.
Free, open source React boilerplate for enterprise admin dashboards, built on Ant Design.
| Tool | Pricing | Free plan | Paid from | Open source | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| shadcn/ui | Open source | Yes, shadcn/ui is completely free | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 125k |
| Tailwind CSS | Freemium | Yes, Tailwind CSS itself is completely free and open source | Tailwind Plus (paid components/templates) is closed to new customers as of the Shopify acquisition | Yes, MIT | 97.8k |
| Radix UI | Open source | Yes, Radix UI is completely free | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 19.4k |
| Material UI | Freemium | Yes: MUI Core's 40+ components are free and open source | $299 a developer a year for MUI X Pro | Yes, MIT (MUI Core); MUI X components are proprietary on paid tiers | 99.1k |
| Ant Design | Open source | Yes, Ant Design is completely free | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 99.7k |
| Headless UI | Open source | Yes, Headless UI is completely free | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 28.8k |
| Mantine | Open source | Yes, Mantine and Mantine UI are both free | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 31.8k |
| Chakra UI | Open source | Yes, Chakra UI is completely free | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 40.7k |
| DaisyUI | Freemium | Yes, the core DaisyUI plugin is completely free | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 42.5k |
| Ant Design Pro | Open source | Yes, completely free and open source | Not listed | Yes, MIT | 38.8k |
Pricing facts come from each tool's official pricing page, with the checked date on the tool's own page.
By GitHub stars, Tailwind CSS is the most used alternative to shadcn/ui listed on ScratchDB, with 97.8k stars.
Tailwind CSS, Radix UI, Material UI, Ant Design, Headless UI, Mantine, Chakra UI, DaisyUI and Ant Design Pro are open source.
Tailwind CSS, Radix UI, Material UI, Ant Design, Headless UI, Mantine, Chakra UI, DaisyUI and Ant Design Pro have a free plan. The table on this page shows what each one includes.
