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This is an unbelievably unfinished UI library. Especially with a price tag. A limited set of components with very little attention to detail. For example, the b

This is an unbelievably unfinished UI library. Especially with a price tag. A limited set of components with very little attention to detail. For example, the buttons lack the active state completely. Why would I pay €250 for something I can find easily for free?

ilrwbwrkhv 3y ago
This is unfortunately the whole space around Tailwind and UI kits. Incomplete kits which look the same and are all priced highly. Just look at Catalyst, Shadcn and Radix UI. I don't know what's new in all of this. These are used by "agencies".
- switz 3y ago
  I’m using parts of Shadcn on a real product making real money. It’s really just a combination of cva, radix, and tailwind that you can copy into your app and customize/extend. Shadcn, radix, and tailwind are all FOSS so they are not “high-priced”. Your analysis is shallow and unfounded.
  - ilrwbwrkhv 3y ago
    I meant they all look very similar. Yes these are indeed free.
  - tipiirai 3y ago
    Shadcn seems more polished and complete than Catalyst, and it's free. Absolutely no reason to pay for Catalyst. btw: is the active state missing from Tailwind since Shadcd buttons are also missing them?
    - tczMUFlmoNk 3y ago
      > btw: is the active state missing from Tailwind since Shadcd buttons are also missing them? Nope. Tailwind has good support for styling the active state, in the way that you'd expect if you've used Tailwind: e.g., `bg-red-500 hover:bg-red-600 active:bg-red-700`. https://tailwindcss.com/docs/hover-focus-and-other-states https://tailwindcss.com/docs/hover-focus-and-other-states
  - canadiantim 3y ago
    It's a shame these are all focused on react. I'd appreciate a vanilla js option
    - jokethrowaway 3y ago
      There are unofficial ports, eg. shadcn for solid: https://www.solid-ui.com/ https://www.solid-ui.com/
- sergiomattei 3y ago
  My understanding with Radix UI was that it’s a headless UI library. Looking at it again, it seems that has changed. Is this recent?
  - sime 3y ago
    You’re thinking of Radix Primitives which is the headless component kit the new Radix Ui is built on https://www.radix-ui.com/primitives https://www.radix-ui.com/primitives
- blowski 3y ago
  > These are used by "agencies" Oh my word, the horror! What's wrong with agencies?
  - sibit 3y ago
    I don't think they were implying something is inherently wrong with agencies. My interpretation of their comment is that 'agencies' who sell assembling plug-and-play UI kits are not the same as 'agencies' who design and build bespoke products from scratch.
vallode 3y ago
It's so easy to use! Plug-n-play, CSS technical debt, "production-ready", easy to customise, a single button is ONLY 1932 bytes of information, lean! /s I was _about_ to praise it for at least being tabbable, but the example of "Team members" does not work with keyboard-only navigation... great stuff.
- chrismorgan 3y ago
  Hmm? That one works just fine, the dropdowns are regular <select> and those are the only focusable pieces. Now something you can definitely complain about is the dialog not submitting with Enter.
bdlowery 3y ago
I would not expect something labeled as “v0.1.0” as supposed to be finished. Weird unproductive comment tbh.
- mock-possum 3y ago
  Has early access come to js component libraries??
- akaike 3y ago
  To be honest, his comment is more productive than yours. The point is, they expect you to pay for it, no matter how you label it, and the price is hefty for what you get.
  - mrcwinn 3y ago
    The price includes the rest of TailwindUI, not just the Catalyst Preview. Whether or not it's the correct value for money is of course up to you, but I've used it extensively.
- ncallaway 3y ago
  I would expect something labeled as $149 as supposed to be finished.
  - JasonSage 3y ago
    Nothing about $149 says anything about it being finished or not.
realprimoh 3y ago
You are welcome to do it for free. The entire point of an UI library is to save time.. you can technically build anything you want for free if you don't value your time. This UI library sped up my dev time at least two-fold. The components and sample landing pages provided are really great IMO (and judging by their sales, it's not just me who agrees).
- charlie0 3y ago
  I paid the all access price a couple of years ago and it's been very worth it as I'm more of a backend dev. It's saved me a ton a time.
- bryanrasmussen 3y ago
  >You are welcome to do it for free. The entire point of an UI library is to save time.. you can technically build anything you want for free if you don't value your time. the comment seems more about how lousy the product it is, and sure I wouldn't want to spend my time making a lousy product, but if in my technical evaluation something sucks then there is generally a good chance that I can build something better. So the comparison is between using money to buy something bad or using time to build something good and the phrasing would be something like: You are welcome to use your time to build something that doesn't have all these problems.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- manojlds 3y ago
  Point being it's incomplete and so you spend money AND time.
  - realprimoh 3y ago
    It’s not incomplete though. It has all the components you need to fully build a full-featured functioning web application fast. I’ve shipped products with this kit without having to change much code because it’s very well-made. Don’t take it from me - take it from the tens of thousands of devs who also use it. The commenter above didn’t even look deeply into the actual offering. Catalyst is just one tiny (new) subset of the large number of things offered by the entire package.
b1n 3y ago
Complaints about TailwindCSS always remind me of this quote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ― Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-get-a-man-to-understand-something https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-ge...
- ryanSrich 3y ago
  Is tailwindui associated with tailwindCSS? If not, then the lack of completeness and quality of this UI kit says nothing about tailwindCSS.
  - uxp8u61q 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - input_sh 3y ago
    Literally on the page: > Built by experts — you can trust that all of the code is written following Tailwind CSS best practices, because it’s written by the same team who created and maintain the framework. It's one of many templates that they sell: https://tailwindui.com/templates https://tailwindui.com/templates
- jokethrowaway 3y ago
  I feel the same about people praising Tailwind. Tailwind (and similar, I tend to use https://unocss.dev/ https://unocss.dev/) is not good for your frontend architecture BUT they allow you to be so fast, that it negates the benefits. For a job well done, I'd follow the principles of https://maintainablecss.com/ https://maintainablecss.com/ For throwaway code I need to cram out as fast as I can, Tailwind it is. I understand agencies using Tailwind, or Bootstrap, their revenue depends on it.
  - joshmanders 3y ago
    > For a job well done What's the definition of a job well done? In my eyes it's completing the project and getting it out the door to customers to use. If Tailwind makes that happen, then isn't it a job well done?
wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
I've paid the 250, you don't just get these, but also lots of others: landing, components, docs sites etc. In 10 years time I've used a decent share of templates, but these I've enjoyed most by far and gotten the best user reactions from.
- dawnerd 3y ago
  Exactly. It’s very inexpensive considering what a lot of us make and how much time it can save when prototyping. It’s paid for itself multiple times over for me.
whazor 3y ago
The key differentiator as I understand it, is that they provide simple code for kick-starting your own React component library. You receive a Figma design, and you tweak the components. But yeah, it is clearly not yet finished, the dark mode has a too low color ratio. Good thing is that this UI library comes bundled with the previously existing Tailwind UI.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
martypitt 3y ago
Looks like it's bundled with everything else in their templates collection. I purchased all access a while ago, and have found it incredibly helpful. It's definitely worth the one-off price tag, and the fact they include future updates (like Catalyst) is incredible.

ilrwbwrkhv 3y ago

This is unfortunately the whole space around Tailwind and UI kits. Incomplete kits which look the same and are all priced highly. Just look at Catalyst, Shadcn and Radix UI. I don't know what's new in all of this. These are used by "agencies".

switz 3y ago
I’m using parts of Shadcn on a real product making real money. It’s really just a combination of cva, radix, and tailwind that you can copy into your app and customize/extend. Shadcn, radix, and tailwind are all FOSS so they are not “high-priced”. Your analysis is shallow and unfounded.
- ilrwbwrkhv 3y ago
  I meant they all look very similar. Yes these are indeed free.
- tipiirai 3y ago
  Shadcn seems more polished and complete than Catalyst, and it's free. Absolutely no reason to pay for Catalyst. btw: is the active state missing from Tailwind since Shadcd buttons are also missing them?
  - tczMUFlmoNk 3y ago
    > btw: is the active state missing from Tailwind since Shadcd buttons are also missing them? Nope. Tailwind has good support for styling the active state, in the way that you'd expect if you've used Tailwind: e.g., `bg-red-500 hover:bg-red-600 active:bg-red-700`. https://tailwindcss.com/docs/hover-focus-and-other-states https://tailwindcss.com/docs/hover-focus-and-other-states
- canadiantim 3y ago
  It's a shame these are all focused on react. I'd appreciate a vanilla js option
  - jokethrowaway 3y ago
    There are unofficial ports, eg. shadcn for solid: https://www.solid-ui.com/ https://www.solid-ui.com/
sergiomattei 3y ago
My understanding with Radix UI was that it’s a headless UI library. Looking at it again, it seems that has changed. Is this recent?
- sime 3y ago
  You’re thinking of Radix Primitives which is the headless component kit the new Radix Ui is built on https://www.radix-ui.com/primitives https://www.radix-ui.com/primitives
blowski 3y ago
> These are used by "agencies" Oh my word, the horror! What's wrong with agencies?
- sibit 3y ago
  I don't think they were implying something is inherently wrong with agencies. My interpretation of their comment is that 'agencies' who sell assembling plug-and-play UI kits are not the same as 'agencies' who design and build bespoke products from scratch.

vallode 3y ago

It's so easy to use! Plug-n-play, CSS technical debt, "production-ready", easy to customise, a single button is ONLY 1932 bytes of information, lean! /s I was _about_ to praise it for at least being tabbable, but the example of "Team members" does not work with keyboard-only navigation... great stuff.

chrismorgan 3y ago
Hmm? That one works just fine, the dropdowns are regular <select> and those are the only focusable pieces. Now something you can definitely complain about is the dialog not submitting with Enter.

bdlowery 3y ago

I would not expect something labeled as “v0.1.0” as supposed to be finished. Weird unproductive comment tbh.

mock-possum 3y ago
Has early access come to js component libraries??
akaike 3y ago
To be honest, his comment is more productive than yours. The point is, they expect you to pay for it, no matter how you label it, and the price is hefty for what you get.
- mrcwinn 3y ago
  The price includes the rest of TailwindUI, not just the Catalyst Preview. Whether or not it's the correct value for money is of course up to you, but I've used it extensively.
ncallaway 3y ago
I would expect something labeled as $149 as supposed to be finished.
- JasonSage 3y ago
  Nothing about $149 says anything about it being finished or not.

realprimoh 3y ago

You are welcome to do it for free. The entire point of an UI library is to save time.. you can technically build anything you want for free if you don't value your time. This UI library sped up my dev time at least two-fold. The components and sample landing pages provided are really great IMO (and judging by their sales, it's not just me who agrees).

charlie0 3y ago
I paid the all access price a couple of years ago and it's been very worth it as I'm more of a backend dev. It's saved me a ton a time.
bryanrasmussen 3y ago
>You are welcome to do it for free. The entire point of an UI library is to save time.. you can technically build anything you want for free if you don't value your time. the comment seems more about how lousy the product it is, and sure I wouldn't want to spend my time making a lousy product, but if in my technical evaluation something sucks then there is generally a good chance that I can build something better. So the comparison is between using money to buy something bad or using time to build something good and the phrasing would be something like: You are welcome to use your time to build something that doesn't have all these problems.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
manojlds 3y ago
Point being it's incomplete and so you spend money AND time.
- realprimoh 3y ago
  It’s not incomplete though. It has all the components you need to fully build a full-featured functioning web application fast. I’ve shipped products with this kit without having to change much code because it’s very well-made. Don’t take it from me - take it from the tens of thousands of devs who also use it. The commenter above didn’t even look deeply into the actual offering. Catalyst is just one tiny (new) subset of the large number of things offered by the entire package.

b1n 3y ago

Complaints about TailwindCSS always remind me of this quote: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” ― Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-get-a-man-to-understand-something https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-ge...

ryanSrich 3y ago
Is tailwindui associated with tailwindCSS? If not, then the lack of completeness and quality of this UI kit says nothing about tailwindCSS.
- uxp8u61q 3y ago
  [flagged]
- input_sh 3y ago
  Literally on the page: > Built by experts — you can trust that all of the code is written following Tailwind CSS best practices, because it’s written by the same team who created and maintain the framework. It's one of many templates that they sell: https://tailwindui.com/templates https://tailwindui.com/templates
jokethrowaway 3y ago
I feel the same about people praising Tailwind. Tailwind (and similar, I tend to use https://unocss.dev/ https://unocss.dev/) is not good for your frontend architecture BUT they allow you to be so fast, that it negates the benefits. For a job well done, I'd follow the principles of https://maintainablecss.com/ https://maintainablecss.com/ For throwaway code I need to cram out as fast as I can, Tailwind it is. I understand agencies using Tailwind, or Bootstrap, their revenue depends on it.
- joshmanders 3y ago
  > For a job well done What's the definition of a job well done? In my eyes it's completing the project and getting it out the door to customers to use. If Tailwind makes that happen, then isn't it a job well done?

wouldbecouldbe 3y ago

I've paid the 250, you don't just get these, but also lots of others: landing, components, docs sites etc. In 10 years time I've used a decent share of templates, but these I've enjoyed most by far and gotten the best user reactions from.

dawnerd 3y ago
Exactly. It’s very inexpensive considering what a lot of us make and how much time it can save when prototyping. It’s paid for itself multiple times over for me.

whazor 3y ago

The key differentiator as I understand it, is that they provide simple code for kick-starting your own React component library. You receive a Figma design, and you tweak the components. But yeah, it is clearly not yet finished, the dark mode has a too low color ratio. Good thing is that this UI library comes bundled with the previously existing Tailwind UI.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

martypitt 3y ago

Looks like it's bundled with everything else in their templates collection. I purchased all access a while ago, and have found it incredibly helpful. It's definitely worth the one-off price tag, and the fact they include future updates (like Catalyst) is incredible.