Design Options

MUI

• Pros
  • We are already using it
  • Intuitive components
• Cons
  • MUI is very “heavy” (performance and bundle size)
  • Default themes aren’t great, customisation is more challenging than they disclose
  • TypeScript performance is abysmal

Mantine

• Pros
  • Such a huge number of components
  • Provides samples of pre-built layouts
  • Very active maintainer
• Cons
  • Very small and niche project
  • Hardly comparable download count compared to others
  • Maintainer lives in Russia (who knows what will happen in the future)
  • Risky move to embrace such a small package
  • Unclear performance benefits

ChakraUI

• Pros
  • More performant than MUI (renders fewer elements to DOM)
  • Much more customisable than MUI
• Cons
  • Still a JS framework, so performance isn’t substantially better
  • Not that different from MUI for the required work

Tailwind

• Pros
  • CSS-based, so super lightweight
  • Not framework-specific (works across anything with CSS)
  • Incredibly popular option for frontend projects
  • Build-your-own-design
• Cons
  • Need to use headless components packages for interactivity (e.g. modals, menus)