Material UI vs Radix UI
Material UI (MUI) gives you over 40 free, pre-styled components implementing Google's Material Design, plus paid MUI X components like data grids and date pickers. Radix UI gives you unstyled, accessible primitives with no visual styling at all, meant as the behavioral foundation for your own design system. Choose MUI if you want a complete look out of the box and are willing to pay for advanced components; choose Radix if you're building a fully custom design system and want full control over every pixel.
Facts checked on against the official sources listed at the end. Usage numbers update daily.
Best for
Projects that want a complete, ready-to-use design system out of the box
Free plan. Paid from $299 a developer a year for MUI X Pro.
Best for
Teams building a fully custom-styled design system on top of accessible component behavior
Free plan.
Material UI vs Radix UI at a glance
| Compared on | Material UI | Radix UI |
|---|---|---|
| Default styling | Ships styled Material Design components ready to use | Ships no styles at all; every visual is written by the developer |
| Theming system | Centralized theme for colors, typography and spacing, including custom (non-Material) themes | No theming layer; styling is handled entirely outside the library, commonly with Tailwind CSS |
| Advanced components | MUI X adds a data grid, date and time pickers and charts, free at a basic level with paid tiers from $299 a developer a year | No built-in data grid, date picker or chart components; only interaction primitives like dialogs and menus |
| Unstyled option from the same team | MUI's own unstyled library, MUI Base, was folded into Base UI, built with the Radix and Floating UI teams | Radix's creators also built Base UI, the newer unstyled library that shadcn/ui made its default in July 2026 |
| Typical role in a project | Used standalone as the complete UI layer | Often used as the primitives layer underneath a styled system, such as the original shadcn/ui |
| Component breadth | 40+ Core components plus MUI X's data-heavy components | About 30 primitives covering interaction patterns like dialogs, menus, tooltips and tabs, no data-heavy components |
| Open source | Yes, MIT (MUI Core); MUI X components are proprietary on paid tiers | Yes, MIT |
| Free plan | Yes: MUI Core's 40+ components are free and open source | Yes, Radix UI is completely free |
| Paid plans from | $299 a developer a year for MUI X Pro | Not listed |
| Made by | MUI | WorkOS (Radix UI open source project) |
What's the difference between Material UI and Radix UI?
MUI ships a full Material Design look, Radix ships nothing visual
MUI Core's 40+ components come styled to Google's Material Design out of the box, themeable but usable as is. Radix UI components render with no default CSS at all; every color, spacing and typographic choice is left to the developer.
MUI X adds paid advanced components, Radix has no equivalent
MUI sells MUI X, a data grid, date and time pickers and charts, with paid Pro, Premium and Enterprise tiers from $299 a developer a year for features like row grouping or Excel export. Radix UI has no built-in data-heavy components at any price; a team needs a separate library or custom build for a grid, calendar or chart.
MUI has a centralized theming system, Radix has none
MUI's theme object controls palette, typography and spacing across every component from one place. Radix leaves styling entirely outside the library, so teams typically build their own design tokens with a system like Tailwind CSS or CSS variables.
Both teams' creators later built Base UI together
MUI's own unstyled library, MUI Base, and Radix UI's creators joined the team behind Base UI, a newer unstyled primitives library credited to leaders from Radix, Floating UI and Material UI. shadcn/ui made Base UI its default primitives library in July 2026, though it still supports Radix.
Radix is commonly layered under other tools, MUI usually stands alone
Because it ships no styling, Radix is often used as the accessible foundation under a separate styled system, most notably as the original default primitives library for shadcn/ui. MUI's components carry their own styling and DOM structure, so they're typically used directly rather than as a base layer for another tool.
Material UI vs Radix UI pricing
MUI Core is free, but its advanced MUI X components require a paid per-developer annual license. Radix UI is entirely free at every level.
Material UI
MUI Core's 40+ components are free and open source under MIT. MUI X's advanced features cost $299 a developer a year on Pro, $599 on Premium, and $1,399 on Enterprise (from 15 seats).
- MUI Core
- $0, open source
- MUI X Pro
- $299 a developer a year
- MUI X Premium
- $599 a developer a year
- MUI X Enterprise
- $1,399 a developer a year
Radix UI
Completely free and open source under the MIT license, with no paid tier for any component or feature.
| Material UI | $897 a year for MUI X Pro (3 developers at $299 a year each) |
|---|---|
| Radix UI | $0, but Radix has no built-in data grid, so the team would need a separate open source or paid grid library |
Prices in USD from the official pricing pages on 28 September 2026. They change often, so confirm on mui.com and radix-ui.com before you commit.
Usage and activity
Material UI has 5.1 times as many GitHub stars as Radix UI (99.1k against 19.4k). Weekly npm downloads: 13M for @mui/material and 92M for @radix-ui/react-dialog.
| Measure | Material UI | Radix UI |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 99,137 | 19,365 |
| npm downloads a week | 13M (@mui/material) | 92M (@radix-ui/react-dialog) |
| Latest release | v9.4.0, 1 month ago | None on GitHub |
| Releases in 90 days | 3 | 0 |
From the public GitHub and npm APIs, updated daily. Stars and downloads show developer interest, not product quality.
Should you choose Material UI or Radix UI?
Choose Material UI if
- You want Material Design components ready to use without building a design system first
- You need an advanced data grid, date picker or charting component and are willing to pay for MUI X
- You want theming handled by a built-in system rather than assembling your own
- You're building an enterprise app that benefits from MUI's large, mature ecosystem
Choose Radix UI if
- You're building a fully custom design system and want no default visual opinions to override
- You plan to pair primitives with Tailwind CSS or another styling system you already use
- You need solid accessibility and keyboard handling without implementing it yourself
- You're building something like shadcn/ui's original approach: your own styled layer on unstyled primitives
Switching between Material UI and Radix UI
Moving from MUI to Radix means stripping out Material Design styling and MUI's component API, then rebuilding every visual from scratch on top of Radix's unstyled primitives, including a theming system MUI provided for free. Moving from Radix to MUI means giving up full styling control and adopting MUI's Material Design defaults and theme object, which is faster to set up but harder to make look distinctive without significant theming work.
Material UI vs Radix UI: common questions
Is Material UI better than Radix UI?
Neither is better for every project. MUI suits teams that want a complete, styled design system out of the box; Radix suits teams building a fully custom look on accessible, unstyled primitives.
Is Radix UI free?
Yes, completely free and open source under the MIT license. MUI Core is also free, but its advanced MUI X components require a paid license.
Does MUI use Radix UI?
No. MUI Core has its own component implementation. MUI's unstyled library, MUI Base, was folded into Base UI, a separate project built with the Radix and Floating UI teams, but that isn't the same as MUI Core using Radix.
Can I use MUI and Radix UI together?
It's uncommon, since both provide their own approach to the same interaction patterns. Teams usually pick one as their component foundation rather than combining them.
Is Radix UI a component library?
Not in the styled sense. It provides unstyled primitives that handle behavior and accessibility, meant to be styled into your own component library rather than used as finished, visual components.
What is MUI X?
MUI's paid set of advanced, data-heavy components: a data grid, date and time pickers, charts and a tree view, sold separately from the free MUI Core components.
Other options to consider
All ui libraries tools
Tailwind CSS
Utility-first CSS framework for building custom designs directly in markup, now owned by Shopify.
shadcn/ui
Copy-paste, customizable UI components built with Tailwind CSS, not installed as a package.
Ant Design
Enterprise-focused React component library and design system, maintained by Alibaba's Ant Group.
Headless UI
Unstyled, accessible UI components from the Tailwind CSS team, for React and Vue.
Sources
- Base UI, from the creators of Radix, Floating UI and Material UI
- mui/base-ui on GitHub
- Material UI pricing
- Radix UI pricing
More sources for each tool are on the Material UI and Radix UI pages.
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