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Semantic UI vs Tailwind CSS: What are the differences?

Semantic UI and Tailwind CSS are two popular CSS frameworks used for building modern web applications, each with its unique approach to styling and layout. Let's explore the key differences between them.

  1. Grid System: Semantic UI provides a fluid and responsive grid system that allows for easy layout customization. It uses classes like ui grid to define grid structures with various column widths. On the other hand, Tailwind CSS utilizes a utility-first approach, offering a comprehensive set of responsive grid classes that can be directly used in HTML markup. This allows for more flexibility in creating custom grid layouts without the need for additional CSS classes or frameworks.

  2. Styling Approach: Semantic UI follows a more opinionated and pre-designed approach to styling components. It provides a wide range of ready-to-use components with predefined styles and themes. In contrast, Tailwind CSS takes a highly customizable and utility-based approach, where you can directly apply utility classes to HTML elements to achieve specific design properties. This gives developers more control and freedom to create their own unique styles without being constrained by predefined UI patterns.

  3. Theming Options: Semantic UI offers a theme system that allows developers to customize the appearance of components by modifying variables or creating their own themes. It provides an extensive set of built-in themes to choose from, making it easy to change the overall look and feel of the UI. Tailwind CSS, on the other hand, does not provide a built-in theming system. Instead, it focuses on providing a robust set of utility classes that can be combined and customized to achieve any desired design style.

  4. File Size: Semantic UI has a larger file size compared to Tailwind CSS. This is mainly due to the fact that Semantic UI includes a wide range of pre-designed components and themes, resulting in more CSS and JavaScript code being included in the final bundle. Tailwind CSS, on the other hand, takes a more minimalistic approach and focuses on providing a comprehensive set of utility classes, resulting in a smaller file size overall.

  5. Learning Curve: Semantic UI has a steeper learning curve compared to Tailwind CSS, especially for beginners. It has its own set of class names and conventions, which can take some time to get used to. In contrast, Tailwind CSS follows a more intuitive and self-explanatory naming convention for utility classes, making it easier to understand and use. This makes Tailwind CSS a popular choice for developers who want to quickly prototype or develop websites without spending much time on custom styling.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Semantic UI has a strong community and a wide array of plugins and extensions that can extend its functionality. It has been around for a longer time and has a larger user base, which means there are more resources and support available. Tailwind CSS, although relatively newer, has gained significant traction and a growing community. It also offers a plugin system and has integrations with popular frameworks like React and Vue.js, making it a versatile choice for modern web development.

In summary, Semantic UI provides a pre-designed, themable UI framework with a fluid grid system, while Tailwind CSS focuses on utility classes, flexibility, and an extensive ecosystem.

Advice on Semantic UI and Tailwind CSS
Ashish Sharma
Sr. UI Associate at Daffodil Software · | 5 upvotes · 670.1K views

I am a bit confused when to choose Bootstrap vs Material Design or Tailwind CSS, and why? I mean, in which kind of projects we can work with bootstrap/Material/Tailwind CSS? If the design is made up on the grid, we prefer bootstrap, and if flat design, then material design. Similarly, when do we choose tailwind CSS?

Any suggestion would be appreciated?

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Replies (4)

Hi Ashish,

If you need minimal work to be done from your end and like most of the components / design available out of the box - go with Bootstrap. This is the oldest and has the widest adoption and a whole range of components built out by others.

If you like Material design, this is a good choice too. Please note that Bootstrap also has a Material theme, though it is not as native.

Both of these above frameworks are bulky and has more than what you may need.

If you like to build micro-components in a elegant way, TailwindCSS is the way to go.

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I don't know about material design.

You would go with Bootstrap if you want to prototype / build something without bothering about the design at all and you are OK if everything looks kinda template-y, using bootstrap out of the box components.

Go with Tailwind if you need a sleek design, a user interface where building with components will be important (because tailwind strongly favors component-based UI), and you know you will need to extend the built-in classes with your own (because tailwind is very easy to extend)

I would personally recommend tailwind over bootstrap any day of the week.

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Recommends
on
Tailwind CSSTailwind CSS

Tailwind is great you don't have to mess with naming things and it is so much more flexible than the cookie cutter bootstrap, but I don't know about material UI. I recommend tailwind it's super simple to learn and has great code snippets.

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Recommends
on
Tailwind CSSTailwind CSS

Put simply, you should use Tailwind regardless. It is a great addition to whatever you use because it removes the hassle of writing CSS.

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Needs advice
on
BootstrapBootstrap
and
Tailwind CSSTailwind CSS

I am planning to redesign my entire application, which is currently in Bootstrap. I heard about Tailwind CSS, and I think its really cool to work with. Is it okay if I use Bootstrap and Tailwind together? I can't remove Bootstrap altogether, as my application is using the js dependencies of Bootstrap, which I don't want to disturb.

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Replies (3)
Ivo Pereira

Factually talking about systems, we gotta make two bold headlines about each one: Bootstrap has been around for a while, has a vast community and much probably will not be gone in a while. Tailwind in the other hand, is the trendy framework starting from the past year. Referring to UI, I really prefer Tailwind, however I can't ignore the fact that a lot of libraries that emerged felt short in the end after a few years (a point where Bootstrap kept his status).

You are able to use both them together but I advise you — it will be a mess. And you gotta hope that you won't have any kind of conflicts between class naming and other general styling.

My recommendation would be to use one and only one. Perhaps rebuild the UI with a specific framework in mind, otherwise you will start to workaround things of both frameworks to contradict each other - and your team (if you work with one) will hate you.

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Arslan Ameer
Sr. Software Engineer at Forenax Technologies · | 5 upvotes · 588.2K views
Recommends
on
BootstrapBootstrap

You might have heard about bootstrap 5. Bootstrap is now totally jQuery free. i have tried foundation and bulma too. but eventually fall again for bootstrap, as it is most convenient and stable. i use bootstrap with less or sass.

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Barry Hylton
Recommends
on
BootstrapBootstrap

I use both of these regularly. If you're going to have to use Bootstrap due to your js dependencies, stick with Bootstrap. I actually prefer Tailwind, but trying to use both of them and make them "play nice" feels like making things more complex with no real benefit.

EDIT: Sorry for the late response, I just noticed how old this is. StackShare sent me this in an email for some reason so I assumed it was relatively fresh.

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Needs advice
on
BootstrapBootstrapTailwind CSSTailwind CSS
and
UIkItUIkIt

We are re-modifying the existing portal to the new one. Looking out for a CSS framework where over-rides are possible, the performance of page loading, extendable, etc Please suggest between tailwind, UIkit and bootstrap frameworks explaining in detail on different factors. I request your help on the same.

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Replies (2)
Collins Ogbuzuru
Front-end dev at Evolve credit · | 3 upvotes · 550.9K views
Recommends
on
Tailwind CSSTailwind CSS

Hey Sai, My thoughts on UIkit - It's beautiful, fast, and it has good animation too. Why would I choose it ? Nothing other than giving the internet a new look .

My thoughts on Bootstrap - it's beautiful, if used well. It's very fast and has clean class naming convention unlike Uikit. Why I would choose it ? It's been tested and trusted, I can find a whole lot of resources and a community around it. Also with the type of project you working on I bet Bootstrap would do the job .

Now, considering Tailwind, it's seen as a classic, simple-to-set-up tool with clean utilities. I wouldn't think of tailwind the way I would to Bootstrap or UIkit. What do I mean ? Tailwind is more like a tool set to create your own design flow. Tailwind allows you to build unique design elements, offering you a level of customization that may be unmatched by the other frameworks.

My final thoughts.

If you have the time , setup and use tailwind it will give you a great chance when it comes to customization and performance.

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Brett Stevenson
Recommends
on
BootstrapBootstrap

I'm a big proponent of Tailwind and I personally use it whenever I get the chance, mostly because it's not really a UI-kit, but it sounds like in this case a UI-kit like Bootstrap with pre-defined components is more what you are looking for. Bootstrap is (relatively) extendable and overridable and makes it really simple to make a decent looking UI using a handful of pre-defined classes, whereas with Tailwind you configure the classes and create your own components. My main reason for replacing Bootstrap in my workflow is that it feels like the component creation has become so abstracted from the developer that any meaningful customization becomes a chore, resulting in many websites having the generic "Bootstrap-look". Nonetheless, it is effective for creating a pleasant and responsive UI. Though, I don't have any experience with UIkit.

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Decisions about Semantic UI and Tailwind CSS
Xinyi Liu
Software Developer at BigClarity · | 6 upvotes · 335.7K views

As our team will be building a web application, HTML5 and CSS3 are one of the standardized combinations to implement the structure and the styling of a webpage. Material-UI comes with all sorts of predesigned web components such as buttons and dropdowns that will save us tons of development time. Since it is a component library designed for React, it suits our needs. However, we do acknowledge that predesigned components may sometimes cause pains especially when it comes to custom styling. To make our life even easier, we also adopted Tailwind CSS. It is a CSS framework providing low-level utility classes that will act as building blocks when we create custom designs.

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Bridget Sarah
Full Stack Developer at Bridget Sarah · | 10 upvotes · 638.4K views

I do prefer to write things from scratch however when it came to wanting to jump-start the frontend, I found that it was taking me a lot longer hence why needing to use something very fast.

Bootstrap was the boom when it came out, I didn't like it, to be honest, set in its way and a pain to over-ride and in addition, you can tell from a distance if you're using boostrap and as everything looks the same.

I came across Tailwind CSS as I wanted more dynamic features, you could say, I've been now doing it for a few days and I love it a lot. I've been practising with the full stack part installed but I an't we wait until I do a new project, and I'll e able to select exactly what I want. Much faster.

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Pros of Semantic UI
Pros of Tailwind CSS
  • 157
    Easy to use and looks elegant
  • 92
    Variety of components
  • 64
    Themes
  • 61
    Has out-of-the-box widgets i would actually use
  • 57
    Semantic, duh
  • 44
    Its the future
  • 42
    Open source
  • 37
    Very active development
  • 31
    Far less complicated structure
  • 28
    Gulp
  • 9
    Already has more features than bootstrap
  • 8
    Just compare it to Bootstrap and you'll be hooked
  • 7
    Clean and consistent markup model
  • 7
    UI components
  • 6
    Responsiveness
  • 4
    Because it is semantic :-D
  • 4
    Elegant. clean. readable. maintainable
  • 4
    Good-Looking
  • 2
    Is big and look really great, nothing like this
  • 2
    Consistent
  • 2
    Great docs
  • 2
    Modular and scalable
  • 1
    Easy to use
  • 1
    Blends with reactjs
  • 1
    Jquery
  • 44
    Highly customizable
  • 33
    Quick setup
  • 30
    Utility first styles, its amazing
  • 24
    Versatile
  • 23
    Great docs
  • 16
    Customizable
  • 16
    Fast
  • 15
    Consistent
  • 11
    Very light
  • 11
    Semantic
  • 11
    Open source
  • 9
    Responsive
  • 1
    Easy Tree shaking with Tailwind CLI

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Cons of Semantic UI
Cons of Tailwind CSS
  • 5
    Outdated build tool (gulp 3))
  • 3
    Poor accessibility support
  • 3
    HTML is not semantic (see list component)
  • 2
    Javascript is tied to jquery
  • 14
    Priced
  • 5
    Cluttered html structure

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- No public GitHub repository available -

What is Semantic UI?

Semantic empowers designers and developers by creating a shared vocabulary for UI.

What is Tailwind CSS?

Tailwind is different from frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, or Bulma in that it's not a UI kit. It doesn't have a default theme, and there are no build-in UI components. It comes with a menu of predesigned widgets to build your site with, but doesn't impose design decisions that are difficult to undo.

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What are some alternatives to Semantic UI and Tailwind CSS?
Bootstrap
Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web.
UIkIt
UIkit gives you a comprehensive collection of HTML, CSS, and JS components which is simple to use, easy to customize and extendable.
Ant Design
An enterprise-class UI design language and React-based implementation. Graceful UI components out of the box, base on React Component. A npm + webpack + babel + dora + dva development framework.
Material-UI
Material UI is a library of React UI components that implements Google's Material Design.
Material Design
Material Design is a unified system that combines theory, resources, and tools for crafting digital experiences.
See all alternatives