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Why Shadcn/ui is Your Best Bet for Your Next React Project

After building dozens of React apps, I've finally found the UI library that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out. Here's why Shadcn/ui has become my go-to choice and why it should be yours too.

Why Shadcn/ui is Your Best Bet for Your Next React Project
May 22, 2025
ManhDT
9 min read

Why Shadcn/ui is Your Best Bet for Your Next React Project

I've been building React apps for about 5 years now, and let me tell you - I've tried pretty much every UI library out there. Material-UI (before it became MUI), Chakra UI, Ant Design, React Bootstrap... you name it, I've probably cursed at it during a 2 AM debugging session.

Then I discovered Shadcn/ui about 8 months ago, and honestly? It changed everything. If you're tired of fighting with bloated UI libraries or writing the same components over and over again, this post is for you.

What Makes Shadcn/ui Different?

Here's the thing that blew my mind when I first encountered Shadcn/ui - it's not actually a library. Wait, what?

Instead of installing a massive package with hundreds of components you'll never use, Shadcn/ui gives you individual, copy-paste components that you actually own. It's like having a senior developer on your team who writes perfect, accessible components and just hands you the code.

# Instead of this bloated mess:
npm install some-huge-ui-library

# You do this:
npx shadcn@latest add button

And boom - you get a beautifully crafted button component that's yours to modify however you want.

My Journey from UI Library Hell

Let me paint you a picture of my life before Shadcn/ui. I was working on this e-commerce project, and I chose Material-UI because, you know, Google uses it, so it must be good, right?

Wrong. So very wrong.

Three months in, I'm fighting with their theme system, trying to override styles that seem to have a mind of thier own, and dealing with bundle sizes that would make a whale jealous. The final straw was when I spent 4 hours trying to style a simple dropdown to match our design system.

That's when my colleague Sarah showed me Shadcn/ui, and I kid you not - I rebuilt that same dropdown in 15 minutes. It looked exactly how I wanted it, worked perfectly on mobile, and the code was actually readable.

Why Shadcn/ui Just Works

1. You Actually Own Your Code

This is huge. When you add a Shadcn/ui component, it literally copies the source code into your project. No more debugging mysterious library issues or waiting for maintainers to fix bugs.

// This button is YOURS. Modify it however you want!
import { Button } from "@/components/ui/button"

export function CustomButton() {
  return (
    <Button variant="destructive" size="lg">
      Delete Everything (Don't click this)
    </Button>
  )
}

Need to add a loading state? Just modify the component. Want a new variant? Go for it. No more wrestling with theme overrides or CSS-in-JS gymnastics.

2. Built on Solid Foundations

Shadcn/ui is built on top of Radix UI primitives, which means you get:

  • Accessibility that actually works (not just lip service)
  • Keyboard navigation that doesn't suck
  • Screen reader support out of the box
  • Focus management that makes sense

I remember testing our old Material-UI forms with a screen reader - it was embarassing. With Shadcn/ui? It just works.

3. Tailwind CSS Integration That Makes Sense

If you're using Tailwind (and you should be), Shadcn/ui is like finding your soulmate. The components use Tailwind classes, so styling is intuitive and consistent.

// Want to make it bigger? Just use Tailwind classes
<Button className="w-full h-16 text-xl">
  Big Chunky Button
</Button>

No more fighting with CSS modules or styled-components. It's just... normal CSS utility classes.

Real Examples From My Recent Projects

The Dashboard That Actually Shipped on Time

Last month, I was tasked with building an analytics dashboard for our SaaS product. Normally, this would be a 3-week nightmare of custom components and edge cases.

With Shadcn/ui? I had a functional dashboard with tables, charts, and forms in 4 days. Here's the kind of code I was writing:

import { Card, CardContent, CardDescription, CardHeader, CardTitle } from "@/components/ui/card"
import { Badge } from "@/components/ui/badge"
import { Button } from "@/components/ui/button"

function MetricCard({ title, value, change, trend }) {
  return (
    <Card>
      <CardHeader className="flex flex-row items-center justify-between space-y-0 pb-2">
        <CardTitle className="text-sm font-medium">{title}</CardTitle>
        <Badge variant={trend === 'up' ? 'default' : 'destructive'}>
          {change}
        </Badge>
      </CardHeader>
      <CardContent>
        <div className="text-2xl font-bold">{value}</div>
      </CardContent>
    </Card>
  )
}

Clean, readable, and it worked perfectly. My PM couldn't believe we shipped it so fast.

The Form That Didn't Make Users Cry

Forms are the worst part of web development. Fight me. But Shadcn/ui makes them... dare I say it... enjoyable?

import { zodResolver } from "@hookform/resolvers/zod"
import { useForm } from "react-hook-form"
import { Button } from "@/components/ui/button"
import { Form, FormControl, FormField, FormItem, FormLabel, FormMessage } from "@/components/ui/form"
import { Input } from "@/components/ui/input"

function ContactForm() {
  const form = useForm({
    resolver: zodResolver(contactSchema),
  })

  return (
    <Form {...form}>
      <form onSubmit={form.handleSubmit(onSubmit)} className="space-y-8">
        <FormField
          control={form.control}
          name="email"
          render={({ field }) => (
            <FormItem>
              <FormLabel>Email</FormLabel>
              <FormControl>
                <Input placeholder="your@email.com" {...field} />
              </FormControl>
              <FormMessage />
            </FormItem>
          )}
        />
        <Button type="submit">Send Message</Button>
      </form>
    </Form>
  )
}

This form has proper validation, error handling, and accessibility built-in. The error messages appear in the right places, the focus management works correctly, and it looks great on mobile. All with maybe 20 lines of code.

Common Concerns (And Why They're Wrong)

"But I Need Customization!"

This was my first thought too. How can copy-paste components be flexible enough for real projects?

Turns out, owning your components gives you MORE flexibility, not less. Need a button with an icon? Just modify the Button component. Want a new color scheme? Update the CSS variables. Everything is customizable because you control the code.

"What About Bundle Size?"

Here's the beautiful part - you only ship what you use. No massive runtime dependencies, no tree-shaking worries. Each component is self-contained and only includes what it needs.

Our last project using MUI had a bundle size of 2.3MB for the UI components alone. The same functionality with Shadcn/ui? 180KB. I'm not even kidding.

"But Documentation and Examples!"

The Shadcn/ui docs are actually better than most traditional libraries. Each component comes with clear examples, and since you have the source code, you can see exactly how everything works.

Plus, there's a growing community sharing custom components and examples. The ecosystem is exploding.

Advanced Patterns That Actually Work

Design Token Customization with @theme

One of the coolest things about modern Shadcn/ui setups is how easy it is to customize your design tokens. With Tailwind CSS v4's new @theme directive, you can define your entire design system directly in CSS:

/* In your globals.css */
@import "tailwindcss";

@theme {
  --font-display: "Inter", "sans-serif";
  
  --breakpoint-3xl: 120rem;
  
  --color-brand-50: oklch(0.99 0.02 210);
  --color-brand-100: oklch(0.96 0.05 212);
  --color-brand-500: oklch(0.65 0.15 215);
  --color-brand-900: oklch(0.25 0.08 218);
  
  --ease-smooth: cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1);
  --ease-bounce: cubic-bezier(0.68, -0.55, 0.265, 1.55);
}

This approach is way cleaner than the old tailwind.config.js method. Your design tokens are now co-located with your styles, and you get better IntelliSense support.

Dark Mode That Doesn't Suck

// This just works with zero configuration
<div className="bg-background text-foreground">
  <Card className="border-border">
    <CardContent className="text-muted-foreground">
      This automatically adapts to dark/light mode
    </CardContent>
  </Card>
</div>

The CSS custom properties system means dark mode is built-in and consistent across all components. You can even define theme-specific colors:

@theme {
  --color-primary: oklch(0.5 0.2 250);
  --color-primary-dark: oklch(0.7 0.15 250);
}

Compound Components Done Right

<Dialog>
  <DialogTrigger asChild>
    <Button variant="outline">Open Dialog</Button>
  </DialogTrigger>
  <DialogContent>
    <DialogHeader>
      <DialogTitle>Are you sure?</DialogTitle>
      <DialogDescription>
        This action cannot be undone.
      </DialogDescription>
    </DialogHeader>
    <DialogFooter>
      <Button variant="outline">Cancel</Button>
      <Button>Confirm</Button>
    </DialogFooter>
  </DialogContent>
</Dialog>

The component composition feels natural and flexible. You can mix and match parts without breaking anything.

Custom Components with Theme Variables

When you need to create custom components, you can leverage the same design tokens that Shadcn/ui uses:

// Custom component that respects your design system
function FeatureCard({ title, description, icon }) {
  return (
    <div className="rounded-lg border bg-card p-6 shadow-sm">
      <div className="flex items-center space-x-4">
        <div className="bg-primary/10 text-primary rounded-md p-2">
          {icon}
        </div>
        <div>
          <h3 className="text-lg font-semibold text-card-foreground">
            {title}
          </h3>
          <p className="text-muted-foreground text-sm">
            {description}
          </p>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  )
}

Notice how I'm using semantic color names like bg-card, text-card-foreground, and text-muted-foreground. These automatically adapt to your theme and dark mode settings.

When Shadcn/ui Might Not Be Right

Look, I'm not saying Shadcn/ui is perfect for every situation. Here are some cases where you might want to consider alternatives:

  1. Very Simple Projects: If you're building a basic landing page, you might not need any UI library at all
  2. Extreme Customization Needs: If every component needs to look completely different from the defaults, you might be better off building from scratch
  3. Team Unfamiliar with Tailwind: The learning curve is steeper if your team doesn't know Tailwind CSS

But honestly? These edge cases are pretty rare.

Getting Started (It's Easier Than You Think)

Setting up Shadcn/ui is stupidly simple:

# Initialize in your Next.js project
npx shadcn@latest init

# Add components as you need them
npx shadcn@latest add button card form

# That's it. Seriously.

The CLI will set up your project structure, install dependencies, and configure Tailwind for you. It's probably the smoothest onboarding experience I've ever had with a UI system.

A Quick Note on Configuration Approaches

If you're coming from older Tailwind setups, you might be used to configuring everything in tailwind.config.js. While that still works, the new CSS-first approach with @theme is much cleaner:

/* Old way (still works, but more verbose) */
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  theme: {
    extend: {
      colors: {
        brand: {
          500: '#3B82F6'
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

/* New way (cleaner, better DX) */
@theme {
  --color-brand-500: oklch(0.65 0.15 258);
}

The CSS approach gives you better editor support and keeps your styles co-located with your CSS. Plus, you can use more modern color formats like OKLCH for better color consistency across different displays.

My Honest Assessment After 8 Months

Here's what I love:

  • Development speed - I ship features 2-3x faster
  • Code quality - Everything is accessible and well-tested
  • Maintainability - Easy to debug and modify
  • Bundle size - Significantly smaller than traditional libraries
  • Team adoption - New developers pick it up quickly

What could be better:

  • Component variety - Still growing, but missing some specialized components
  • Documentation - Good but could use more real-world examples
  • Learning curve - If you don't know Tailwind, there's some ramp-up time
  • TypeScript support - While generally good, some edge cases with complex props can be tricky

But honestly? These are minor quibbles. Shadcn/ui has become my default choice for every new React project.

The Bottom Line

If you're starting a new React project in 2024, Shadcn/ui should be at the top of your list. It combines the best parts of traditional UI libraries (great-looking, accessible components) with the flexibility of custom code (full control, small bundle size).

I've built everything from simple landing pages to complex dashboards with it, and it's never let me down. My team loves it, our designers love it (because everything looks consistent), and most importantly - I actually enjoy working with it.

Give it a shot on your next project. I bet you'll have the same "where has this been all my life?" moment that I did.

Want to see Shadcn/ui in action? Check out the source code of this website - it's built entirely with Shadcn/ui components!

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