React UI components with Shadcn/UI, Radix UI, and Tailwind CSS

Modern Interface Development: Experience with Shadcn/UI

Have you ever encountered a situation where a ready-made UI-kit doesn't fit the design, and customization turns into overriding styles with !important? Material UI and Chakra UI add tons of unused code, and SSR support requires separate configuration.

Shadcn/UI solves this problem differently: it's not a library, but a collection of copyable components built on Radix UI and Tailwind CSS. All the code goes into your repository — you control every pixel.

Our team has been implementing Shadcn/UI since its release. During this time, we've delivered over 50 solutions: from admin panels to high-conversion landing pages.

One client, after switching from Material UI, achieved significant savings on code rewriting — Shadcn/UI turned out to be three times lighter in bundle size and required no additional setup for SSR.

In another project, we managed to cut development time by 2 weeks, which meant significant labor savings.

Why Is Shadcn/UI Faster Than Other UI Libraries?

The main problem with large UI frameworks is redundancy. You pull in 100+ components but use only 5-10. Shadcn/UI works differently: you install only what you need. This reduces bundle size by 30–40% and improves Core Web Vitals — LCP drops by 15-20% compared to Material UI.

Accessibility is built into every component thanks to Radix UI, so you don't need to worry about ARIA attributes.

The second problem is customization. In Shadcn/UI there are no overrides: you edit the component's source code. Want to make a button with a gradient? Add a line to the variant object. Need non-standard typography? Change the CSS variables.

At the same time, base accessibility (ARIA attributes, focus, keyboard navigation) is already built in.

The third is dark theme. In Shadcn/UI it's implemented through CSS variables: toggling the dark class on the root element automatically changes the colors. No additional providers or styles needed.

How to Customize Components Without Losing Updates?

Let's look at a typical case: a landing page for a SaaS product on Next.js 14 with TypeScript and Tailwind. We start by initializing Shadcn/UI:

npx shadcn@latest init

The CLI prompts for the style (default/new-york), base color, and aliases. The configuration is written to components.json:

{
  "$schema": "https://ui.shadcn.com/schema.json",
  "style": "new-york",
  "rsc": true,
  "tsx": true,
  "tailwind": {
    "config": "tailwind.config.ts",
    "css": "src/styles/globals.css",
    "baseColor": "slate",
    "cssVariables": true
  },
  "aliases": {
    "components": "@/components",
    "utils": "@/lib/utils"
  }
}

Next, we add the needed components: button, card, dialog, input, form. Each file appears in components/ui/. For example, a dialog with a form:

import { Dialog, DialogContent, DialogHeader, DialogTitle, DialogTrigger } from '@/components/ui/dialog';
import { Button } from '@/components/ui/button';

const ContactDialog = () => (
  <Dialog>
    <DialogTrigger asChild>
      <Button>Contact Us</Button>
    </DialogTrigger>
    <DialogContent>
      <DialogHeader>
        <DialogTitle>Leave a Request</DialogTitle>
      </DialogHeader>
      <form className="flex flex-col gap-4">
        <input name="name" placeholder="Your Name" />
        <input name="email" type="email" placeholder="Email" />
        <Button type="submit">Send</Button>
      </form>
    </DialogContent>
  </Dialog>
);

Customization doesn't require overrides: to add a new button variant, we edit button.tsx:

const buttonVariants = cva(
  'inline-flex items-center justify-center ...',
  {
    variants: {
      variant: {
        default: '...',
        gradient: 'bg-gradient-to-r from-blue-600 to-purple-600 text-white hover:opacity-90',
      },
    },
  },
);

Project Workflow

1. Analysis (1-2 days): we study the mockups, identify recurring UI blocks, and determine the necessary components.
2. Design (1 day): we configure the theme (colors, typography, animations) and create the base layout.
3. Implementation (2-4 days): we integrate the components, adapt them to the design, and check loading/error/empty states.
4. Testing (1 day): we check accessibility (screen readers, keyboard), responsiveness, and performance (Lighthouse 90+).
5. Deployment (0.5 days): we configure the build, caching, and connect analytics.

What's Included

• Source code for all components with TypeScript and JSDoc.
• A globals.css file with correct CSS variables for your brand.
• Responsive layout (mobile-first) with breakpoints.
• Dark theme (if needed).
• Brief documentation: how to add a new component, how to update via npx shadcn diff.
• Training for your team (1-hour call) — we'll cover best practices.
• Support for 2 weeks after delivery.

Timeline and Cost

Cost is calculated individually — it depends on the number of components and the complexity of customization. The estimate takes no more than 24 hours. Order development on Shadcn/UI — we guarantee code without hydration errors, 100% match to the mockup, and passing Core Web Vitals. Contact us to discuss your project — we'll get back to you within 24 hours.