DaisyUI: The Tailwind CSS Shortcut You’ll Either Love or Regret

Introduction

Building complex components from scratch can be a nightmare. That’s where DaisyUI steps in, promising to give you beautiful, pre-styled components to make your life easier. But does it truly deliver, or does it come with trade-offs you might regret? After using it in my side projects, I’ve discovered both its strengths and its shortcomings. Here’s my honest take on whether DaisyUI is a must-have or just another trendy tool with hidden downsides.

👍 Tons of Ready-to-Use Components

One of the good things about DaisyUI is the wide variety of pre-styled components it offers. It includes elements that you don’t usually see in other libraries, such as:

• Chat bubble
• Keyboard shortcut UI
• Advanced form elements (e.g. Rating)

Having these out of the box saves a ton of time, so you can focus on building your app instead of fussing over UI styling.

👍 Good-looking Theme Support

DaisyUI takes themes to the next level. It doesn’t just offer light and dark modes — it comes with numerous pre-defined themes with carefully selected color palettes. And the best part? You can apply these themes across all DaisyUI elements with no extra effort.

Screenshot taken by the author on daisyUI themes

👍 Highly Customizable

Even though DaisyUI gives you pre-styled components, you’re not locked into them. The library remains highly customizable, allowing you to tweak themes and styles while still benefiting from Tailwind’s utility classes.

Customize DaisyUI Themes

You can modify existing themes or create your own.

Example: Customize Primary Color & Add a Theme

Image generated using Raycast

Now you can apply your theme using: