shadcn/ui vs Material UI: Complete Comparison Guide
Compare shadcn/ui and Material UI on customizability, design system, bundle size, and developer experience. Discover which component library best fits your React project.
shadcn/ui
Not a traditional component library, but a collection of reusable components you copy into your project. shadcn/ui is built on Radix UI primitives and styled with Tailwind CSS. Because the code lives in your project, you have full control over styling and behavior — without vendor lock-in.
Material UI
The most popular React component library, based on Google's Material Design system. Material UI (MUI) provides an extensive set of 50+ production-ready components, a powerful theme system, and support for both Material Design and custom design systems via MUI System.
Comparison table
| Feature | shadcn/ui | Material UI |
|---|---|---|
| Distribution model | Copy-paste — components live in your codebase | NPM package — installed as a dependency |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS — utility-first with full customizability | Emotion/Styled-components or Tailwind via MUI System |
| Customizability | Full — you own the code and modify everything directly | Via theme and sx prop, but underlying structure is fixed |
| Component offering | Growing — 40+ components, community extensions | Very extensive — 50+ components including complex data grids and date pickers |
| Bundle size | Minimal — only the components you use, no runtime | Larger — Emotion runtime and Material Design CSS add overhead |
| Accessibility | Excellent — built on Radix UI primitives (WAI-ARIA) | Good — Material Design guidelines follow accessibility standards |
Verdict
shadcn/ui and Material UI represent two philosophies for component libraries. shadcn/ui gives maximum control and flexibility by placing components in your codebase, making it ideal for custom designs with Tailwind CSS. Material UI offers the most complete package of production-ready components with a proven design system. Choose shadcn/ui when you want to build a unique design; choose Material UI when you need a consistent interface quickly with advanced components.
Our recommendation
At MG Software, shadcn/ui is our default component library for new projects. The combination with Tailwind CSS and Radix UI primitives gives us full control over the design while benefiting from accessible, tested components as a foundation. We appreciate Material UI for admin dashboards and internal tools where the rich component offering saves development time. For customer-facing products where brand identity is crucial, we recommend shadcn/ui for its boundless customizability.
Frequently asked questions
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