The good news is to create amazingly responsive UI, the popular UI kits like Bootstrap, Bulma, Foundation, and sometimes media queries are the way to go. But, what if you want to implement a custom UI design? Is that the very reason for the increasing popularity of Tailwind CSS? Let’s understand.

What Is Tailwind CSS?

Tailwind CSS was originally developed by Adam Wathan and was first released on November 1st, 2017. It is a utility-first low-level framework in order to apply CSS. It means you won’t need to write a lot of CSS. Instead, you will write numerous classes for your HTML elements.

The best thing about Tailwind CSS is that it is highly customizable. You can build custom designs and excellent custom user interfaces. Interestingly, it won’t require extraordinary coding effort. You can easily leverage the styling of every single component separately in the way your UI demands. In addition, you can build unique micro-interactions that can be extended following the project requirements.

Tailwind CSS offers flexibility to transform the “look and feel” of the elements. You may think that it’s not at all convenient to write a lot of classes. That’s where component extraction comes. You can bundle these classes into one and name it as you want. It’s similar to creating a Bootstrap-like framework.

These are some of the reasons why Tailwind CSS is drawing a lot of attention. While unlikely to rival Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS offers flexibility in exchange for time. However, it makes sense to build custom components without residing on code conflicts.

What Is Bootstrap CSS Framework?

Bootstrap was started as a branch of Twitter internal design tools in mid 2010, and it became an open-source framework on August 19th, 2011. It is based on Object-Oriented CSS. It is a semantic/component-based framework that helps to design and develop the website templates quickly.

Additionally, it is super easy to learn and maintain consistency across multiple devices and browsers. The responsive 12-column grid system, components, and layouts are just a matter of a few minor changes. You can do offsetting and nesting of columns in both fluid-width and fixed layouts. You can use responsive utility classes to hide or display certain content only on a specific screen size.

In Bootstrap, all the fundamental HTML elements like headings, tables, buttons, lists, forms, etc., are pre-styled with base styling that can be quickly implemented. Bootstrap has got almost everything covered, be it drop-down menus, navigation bar, pagination, breadcrumbs, etc. If you know CSS, it will be super easy to customize them and build a decent website template.

You can easily make user-interactive elements using numerous JavaScript plugins that are bundled in the bootstrap package. However, with proper documentation and a large community, Bootstrap is still considered a better option to get started.

Tailwind CSS vs. Bootstrap: Is It the Right Time To Switch?

The significant difference between Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap is that Tailwind offers predesigned widgets to build a site from scratch with fast UI development, while Bootstrap comes with a set of pre-styled responsive, mobile-first components that possess a definite UI kit.

The main issue with Bootstrap is that developers have to rely merely on specific abstracted patterns. It compels to override the framework with custom CSS that utterly defeats the purpose of using a framework in the first place.

Sites created using Bootstrap follow the generic pattern that makes them look alike. Undoubtedly, it hampers the ability to incorporate creativity effectively. Also, Bootstrap requires a 308.25kb file size, including the main file, Bootstrap JS, Popper.js, and jQuery.

On the other hand, Tailwind CSS uses a set of utility classes to create a neat UI with more flexibility. The predesigned widgets help to implement the design without worrying about one element affecting another related element.

For example, you can set focus states, hover, and active using classes. In addition, you can considerably reduce the file size by removing the unused classes using PurgeCSS. That’s why for a lightweight project, Tailwind can be a good choice since it merely requires the base stylesheet file for up to 27kb size.

Let’s take two examples. First, create a search bar using Bootstrap and Tailwind CSS.

Output:

Now, create a basic form template using Tailwind and Bootstrap.

Output:

Can you spot the differences?

CSS and Bootstrap: The Choice Is Yours

If you are a backend developer or new to development, going with Bootstrap is a better choice. Bootstrap is easy to get started, and you will get quick results that will build your confidence. On the other hand, if you are already a front-end developer or used Bootstrap before, it would be awesome to try Tailwind CSS at least once and see if that’s working for you or not.

It is subjective to decide whether Bootstrap or Tailwind is best because your needs and preferences would differ from others.