# Headless UI vs Tailwind CSS

| Attribute | Headless UI | Tailwind CSS |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 67.4 (57% (medium)) | 71.3 (76% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 23 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 45,352 | 1,049,673 |
| adoption.github_stars | 28,775 | 97,875 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 7,496,681 | 137,279,787 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Open-source library of fully accessible UI components designed to be completely unstyled, providing seamless integration with Tailwind CSS It is indexed under Frontend UI Frameworks.","source":"https://headlessui.com/","question":"What is Headless UI?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Headless UI is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://headlessui.com/","question":"Is Headless UI free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Headless UI. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://headlessui.com/","question":"What platforms does Headless UI support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 3 integrations for Headless UI, including React, Vue and Tailwind CSS. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://headlessui.com/","question":"What does Headless UI integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Headless UI is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui","question":"Is Headless UI open source?","confidence":0.99}]` | `[{"answer":"A CSS framework providing a library of styling utilities you can apply directly to your HTML elements. It scans your code and generates only the CSS you actually use, with built-in support for responsive layouts, dark mode, and theme customization. It is indexed under Frontend UI Frameworks.","source":"https://tailwindcss.com","question":"What is Tailwind CSS?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Tailwind CSS is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://tailwindcss.com","question":"Is Tailwind CSS free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Tailwind CSS. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://tailwindcss.com","question":"What platforms does Tailwind CSS support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 7 integrations for Tailwind CSS, including Laravel, SvelteKit, React Router, Nuxt, SolidJS, Vite and PostCSS. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://tailwindcss.com","question":"What does Tailwind CSS integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Tailwind CSS is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss","question":"Is Tailwind CSS open source?","confidence":0.99}]` |
| description.long | Provides unstyled, fully accessible UI components that you can style using utility classes from Tailwind CSS | Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework that enables rapid website development by applying pre-built CSS utility classes directly to HTML markup. It scans templates to generate only the styles actually used, producing minimal CSS bundles (often under 10kB) with zero runtime overhead. |
| features.capabilities | `{"paradigm":"Headless component library","bundle_size":"tiny","ssr_support":true,"virtual_dom":true,"component_model":true}` | `{"paradigm":"Utility-first CSS framework","bundle_size":"tiny","ssr_support":true}` |
| integrations.count | 3 | 7 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"React"},{"name":"Vue"},{"name":"Tailwind CSS"}]` | `[{"name":"Laravel"},{"name":"SvelteKit"},{"name":"React Router"},{"name":"Nuxt"},{"name":"SolidJS"},{"name":"Vite"},{"name":"PostCSS"}]` |
| language.primary | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| license.spdx | MIT | MIT |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://headlessui.com/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T23:00:21.344Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://tailwindcss.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T15:24:55.725Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | - |
| pricing.model | commercial | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 12 | 17 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.10","date":"2026-04-07T17:11:30Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.9","date":"2025-09-25T13:51:49Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.8","date":"2025-09-12T15:34:21Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.7","date":"2025-07-30T14:04:23Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.6","date":"2025-07-24T14:50:04Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.5","date":"2025-07-23T11:23:56Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.4","date":"2025-05-20T14:17:25Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.3","date":"2025-05-12T21:49:39Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.2","date":"2025-04-17T13:18:58Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.1","date":"2025-04-04T14:48:26Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/tailwindcss%40v0.2.2","date":"2025-02-06T13:22:42Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/tailwindcss@v0.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.2.0","date":"2024-10-25T13:52:27Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.1.10","date":"2024-10-10T18:58:56Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.1.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.1.9","date":"2024-10-03T09:58:43Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.1.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.1.8","date":"2024-09-12T10:36:03Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.1.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.1.7","date":"2024-09-11T15:33:57Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.1.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/vue%40v1.7.23","date":"2024-09-09T09:07:12Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/vue@v1.7.23"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.1.6","date":"2024-09-09T19:15:42Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.1.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.1.5","date":"2024-09-04T14:37:47Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.1.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/headlessui/releases/tag/%40headlessui/react%40v2.1.4","date":"2024-09-03T15:26:48Z","type":"stable","version":"@headlessui/react@v2.1.4"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.3.3","date":"2026-07-16T11:55:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.3.2","date":"2026-06-29T14:21:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.3.1","date":"2026-06-12T17:50:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.3.0","date":"2026-05-08T20:17:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.2.4","date":"2026-04-21T13:09:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.2.3","date":"2026-04-20T20:46:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.2.2","date":"2026-03-18T16:06:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.2.1","date":"2026-02-23T12:51:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.2.0","date":"2026-02-18T14:58:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.1.18","date":"2025-12-11T16:31:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v3.4.19","date":"2025-12-10T18:39:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.4.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.1.17","date":"2025-11-06T15:34:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.1.16","date":"2025-10-23T10:55:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.1.15","date":"2025-10-20T13:17:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.1.14","date":"2025-10-01T16:00:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v3.4.18","date":"2025-10-01T15:29:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.4.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.1.13","date":"2025-09-04T17:29:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.1.12","date":"2025-08-14T12:48:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.1.11","date":"2025-06-26T10:52:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/releases/tag/v4.1.10","date":"2025-06-11T20:37:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.1.10"}]` |
| security.scorecard | 4.2 | 7 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=%40headlessui%2Freact&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=npm&package_name=tailwindcss&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Frontend UI Frameworks)

| Capability | Headless UI | Tailwind CSS |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Core** |  |  |
| Paradigm | Headless component library | Utility-first CSS framework |
| Reusable component model | ✓ | - |
| **Rendering** |  |  |
| Virtual DOM | ✓ | - |
| Signals / fine-grained reactivity | - | - |
| SSR support | ✓ | ✓ |
| **DX** |  |  |
| First-class TypeScript | - | - |
| **State** |  |  |
| Built-in state management | - | - |
| **Ecosystem** |  |  |
| Official router | - | - |
| **Performance** |  |  |
| Runtime size | Tiny (<10kb) | Tiny (<10kb) |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:06:04.392Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*