Radix UI is a set of unstyled, accessible React primitives. shadcn/ui is a collection of styled components you copy into your project, built on top of primitives like these. Radix handles behavior, and shadcn/ui adds Tailwind styling and structure. New shadcn/ui projects now default to Base UI, with Radix UI and React Aria as options.
Side by side
shadcn/ui
Radix UI
Layer
Styled components
Unstyled primitives, plus Radix Themes
Delivery
Copy-paste source
npm package (radix-ui)
Styling
Tailwind CSS
None, or Radix Themes
License
MIT
MIT
Do you need both?
If you use shadcn/ui with the Radix option, Radix is installed for you as a dependency. Use Radix directly only when you want to write all the styling yourself. Watermelon UI components follow the same shadcn conventions, so they sit next to either setup. Browse free React components.
Watermelon UI is an open-source platform for browsing React components,
animated interactions, dashboards, templates, and reusable page
sections. The project is built for the community and helps developers
move from inspiration to implementation faster by pairing visual
previews with source-backed examples and documentation. The platform
also includes full templates so people can see how individual blocks
work together as realistic product pages instead of only as isolated
snippets.
Important public pages include the main docs home, animated components,
blocks, dashboards, templates, developer docs, about,
contact, privacy, terms, copyright, llms.txt, and the sitemap. The
repositories under WatermelonCorp are the source of truth for
contributions, and the platform repository includes local MCP tooling
for structured agent access to the catalog.