Best UI Libraries to Design Modern SaaS Websites: The 2025 Guide

. You are responsible for keyboard navigation, screen reader support, and cross-browser testing. Libraries like MUI or Radix UI handle these invisible complexities for you.

If you are using a saas website template, it likely relies on one of these libraries. Understanding the underlying system allows you to customize it without breaking the accessibility features that enterprise clients demand.

Is Shadcn/ui the New Standard for SaaS?

Shadcn/ui has become the de facto standard for modern React SaaS applications because it is not a dependency you install, but a set of reusable components you copy and paste into your codebase. This “ownership” model eliminates the risk of being locked into a library’s rigid design decisions while giving you complete control over the code.

Unlike traditional libraries where you fight against the maintainer’s CSS, Shadcn/ui gives you the source code. It uses Tailwind CSS for styling and Radix UI for accessibility primitives.

Why it wins for SaaS:

• Zero Runtime Cost: Since you own the components, you can tree-shake unused code easily.
• Headless Base: It uses Radix UI, ensuring your modals and dropdowns work perfectly for keyboard users.
• AI-Ready: Its clean, text-based structure makes it the easiest library for AI coding assistants (like Cursor or Copilot) to generate code with.

When Should You Choose Material UI (MUI)?

Material UI (MUI) remains the best choice for data-heavy B2B applications and internal tools where consistency and speed of implementation outweigh unique branding. Its “Pro” and “Premium” tiers (MUI X) offer the most powerful Data Grid and Charting libraries in the React ecosystem, which are essential for analytics dashboards.

If your SaaS is a logistics platform, a CRM, or a financial tool, your users care more about data density and sorting than they do about custom gradients. MUI delivers this out of the box.

MUI X Data Grid Features:

• Virtualization: Handles 100,000+ rows smoothly.
• Column Pinning: Essential for wide tables.
• Filtering: Complex logic (AND/OR) built-in.

While heavier than newer options, its robustness is unmatched for enterprise use cases.

Mantine: The Feature-Rich Underdog

Mantine is an exceptional choice for solo founders and small teams because it includes over 100 components and 50 hooks (like form handling and hotkeys) natively, reducing the need for third-party dependencies. It strikes a perfect balance between the flexibility of Shadcn and the completeness of MUI.

I often recommend Mantine for react js library projects where you need complex inputs—like a “Tag Input” or “Rich Text Editor”—without installing five different packages.

Mantine’s styling engine recently migrated to native CSS modules (v7), significantly improving performance with Server Components in Next.js. It is a “batteries-included” framework that doesn’t feel bloated.

Tailwind UI vs. Ant Design: A Comparison

The choice between Tailwind UI and Ant Design often comes down to your target audience: Tailwind UI is best for consumer-facing SaaS and marketing sites requiring a modern “Western” aesthetic, while Ant Design is the gold standard for complex enterprise ERP systems, particularly in Asian markets or global fintech.

Feature	Tailwind UI	Ant Design
Type	Copy-paste snippets	Component Library
Styling	Utility classes (Tailwind)	CSS-in-JS (Ant Design Style)
Aesthetic	Clean, Modern, “Stripe-like”	Dense, Enterprise, Information-heavy
Customization	High (You own the HTML)	Low (Opinionated)
Best For	Marketing sites, Modern SaaS	Admin Panels, Internal Tools

Tailwind UI is perfect if you are using a css framework for react like Tailwind CSS. It provides the “blocks” (Pricing sections, Hero headers) that you can drop into your project.

What Happened to NextUI? (Now HeroUI)

NextUI has officially rebranded to HeroUI as of early 2025 to reflect its expansion beyond the Next.js ecosystem. It remains a top contender for “design-first” SaaS products that need a high-fidelity, highly animated look (Glassmorphism, gradients) out of the box without manual styling.

If you want your app to look “premium” and “dark-mode native” instantly, HeroUI is fantastic. It uses Tailwind CSS under the hood but abstracts the complexity away.

• Pros: Beautiful default theme, great accessibility (React Aria based).
• Cons: Heavy focus on aesthetics can sometimes make dense information layouts (like spreadsheets) harder to design.

Managing Forms and Data Tables

For SaaS applications, your UI library must handle complex forms and data tables efficiently; libraries like TanStack Table (Headless) paired with Shadcn/ui offer the best performance for custom data grids, while MUI X offers the best “out-of-the-box” experience for enterprise tables.

Forms and Tables are the bread and butter of SaaS.

• Forms: Use React Hook Form. Most UI libraries (Mantine, Shadcn, Chakra) integrate seamlessly with it.
• Tables: Don’t build a table from scratch. Use a headless library like TanStack Table to handle sorting and filtering logic, then style it with your UI library’s table components.

This approach ensures your react frameworks stay performant even as your datasets grow.

Pricing Considerations for “Pro” Kits

While many libraries are open-source, their “Pro” versions offer significant value for SaaS teams. Tailwind UI costs a one-time fee (~$299) for lifetime access to hundreds of components. MUI X Premium allows sophisticated data grouping but operates on a per-developer annual license (~$15-$49/mo).

• Bootstrap/Tailwind Templates: Usually one-time purchase ($49-$99). Good for MVPs using an html5 basic template.
• Component Systems (MUI X): Recurring cost. Worth it if you save 200 hours of engineering time building a Pivot Table.

Conclusion

1. For Maximum Control & AI Workflow: Shadcn/ui. It is the future of React development.
2. For Enterprise Data Apps: MUI (Material UI). Unbeatable for complex data handling.
3. For Solo Founders / Speed: Mantine. It gives you everything you need in one package.
4. For “Wow” Factor: HeroUI (NextUI). Best for visually stunning, modern interfaces.

Choose the library that aligns with your team’s strengths and your product’s density. In 2025, there is no “bad” choice among these top contenders—only the wrong choice for your specific use case. For further reading on Windows-style UI patterns, check out Windows UI Library.