Comprehensive Comparison between Tailwind UI and the Tailwind UI Kit (TUK)

I just started web development a few weeks back and after trying out a few web development products in the market I wanted to give an honest opinion about Tailwind UI and Tailwind UI kit or TUK. But before we start comparing Tailwind UI and the TUK you need to know that both run on the Tailwind CSS framework. In that they have no differences however, there is a considerable difference when it comes to the functionality and quality of products both these UI kits offer which we’ll get back to later on in this article, but before we dive into that here’s a brief summary of what I know so far about Tailwind CSS.

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS is a utility-class framework, which means that you can choose from a variety of classes such as sizing, color, layout, spacing, typography, etc. to customize your design system and user interface. Making designing a hassle-free task, Tailwind has made the lives of many fronts and back-end developers, including myself, easier by providing us with a tool that doesn’t require us to write our own custom CSS. I don’t hate having to write my own custom CSS however, I don’t mind not having to write it as it saves me a lot of time while designing and allows me to focus more on developing.

UI Kits

A UI kit is basically a library of various pre-made components that you can use to build a user interface (UI) in almost half the time it would take you to build one if you were writing your own CSS. Tailwind UI is a UI kit prepared by the Tailwind CSS team which provides developers with built-in UI components to use in designing UIs. Tailwind UI like many Tailwind CSS UI kits in the market has its share of competitors however, from the majority pool of Tailwind CSS UI kits, the TUK was the only one that I thought was providing more for less than Tailwind UI itself. Tailwind UI and the TUK are almost the same in the sense that both use Tailwind CSS utility-class framework, however, the TUK offers more components than Tailwind UI. TUK has over 600 components and offers ready-made templates which Tailwind UI doesn’t.

Tailwind UI vs Tailwind UI Kit (TUK)

When prototyping you need something that is fast and efficient. You do not want to waste your time and resources while designing a user interface, but what you want is something that gives you the same result as the one you’d get if you were writing your own CSS. When I started web development I had no idea that I’d be using a utility-class framework for my projects but after using Tailwind, I fell in love with it, even more so when I found out that they had prepared a UI kit from the same Tailwind CSS framework, my life couldn’t be any better. However, after using the Tailwind UI for a while I started noticing that the components had excessive features that weren’t necessarily required most of the time. In other words, Tailwind UI was over-engineered. I know you’d be thinking that this guy is crazy, so what if you have excessive features then what, just don’t use them!! But as a matter of fact, being over-engineered was a turn off for me, instead of making my life easier, I was stuck having to remove most of the features that my projects didn’t require and ended up spending the same amount of time I’d spend if I were writing my own CSS. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic, I’m grateful for what the Tailwind CSS team has done but in terms of their UI kit, I’m not so pleased. TUK is a better UI kit than Tailwind UI in the sense that it’s not over-engineered. TUK is not only a better UI kit it is a lot easier than Tailwind UI because rather than fitting a lot of features in one component and over-engineering them, what the TUK has done is provided more components with separate features so you don’t need to remove any features which you don’t require from the components themselves, rather you just choose the component you want and add them to your design. By providing more than 600 component options to choose from, the TUK team has made UI development even easier, and to top it off they’ve even made templates. Most of the time when I’m starting a new project I’m lost in choosing a design for my project and I don’t know where to start from. TUK even has that covered. By providing ready-made templates, all I have to do is to choose a template that I like and get a sense of what the design should look like. This really boosts the design process for me as I don’t have to ponder much into my imagination before starting every new project. Not to mention, the TUK seems more modern in terms of the design of the components and is keeping itself up with the latest design trends. Seems like the TUK has a very motivated design team behind the screen working their fingers to the bone to constantly improve their product. I’m not saying that Tailwind UI is not that great, it just doesn’t fit into my work anymore and that doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t work for you. You should try them both, both of them offer free components which you could work with and judge for yourselves and see what works best for you. But coming from a person who just started web development and now that there is a new kid on the block who offers more options to choose from, has ready-made templates, and is up to date with the latest design trends, I would definitely recommend that you start with the TUK.