tailwindlabs/headlessui

Analysis updated 2026-06-20

★ 28,548TypeScriptAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Headless UI))
    Components
      Dropdowns
      Modal dialogs
      Tabs
      Toggles
    Built-in features
      Keyboard nav
      Screen reader support
      Focus management
    Frameworks
      React
      Vue
    Design approach
      Zero styling
      Tailwind friendly
      Full design freedom

mindmap root((Headless UI)) Components Dropdowns Modal dialogs Tabs Toggles Built-in features Keyboard nav Screen reader support Focus management Frameworks React Vue Design approach Zero styling Tailwind friendly Full design freedom

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Add an accessible dropdown menu to a React app without fighting to override opinionated default styles from another library.

USE CASE 2

Build a keyboard-navigable modal dialog in a Vue app with your own Tailwind CSS styling applied from scratch.

USE CASE 3

Drop in accessible tab components that work with screen readers without writing any ARIA attributes manually.

USE CASE 4

Create a fully custom-styled toggle switch that is keyboard accessible and matches your brand design exactly.

What is it built with?

TypeScriptReactVue

How does it compare?

	tailwindlabs/headlessui	dayuanjiang/next-ai-draw-io	qwibitai/nanoclaw
Stars	28,548	28,583	28,642
Language	TypeScript	TypeScript	TypeScript
Setup difficulty	easy	easy	moderate
Complexity	2/5	3/5	3/5
Audience	developer	developer	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

In plain English

Headless UI is a library of user interface components, things like dropdown menus, modal dialogs, tabs, and toggles, built for React and Vue web applications. The "headless" part means each component comes with all the interactive behavior and keyboard accessibility built in, but with absolutely no visual styling applied. You get the logic and the accessibility (screen-reader support, keyboard navigation) out of the box, while having complete freedom to style everything yourself using Tailwind CSS or any other styling approach. This solves a common problem: most UI component libraries come with opinionated styles that are hard to override to match your design. Headless UI skips the styles entirely so your team controls the appearance from the start. It is installed via npm with separate packages for React (@headlessui/react) and Vue (@headlessui/vue), and is designed and maintained by the Tailwind CSS team.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Using @headlessui/react, write a dropdown menu component styled with Tailwind CSS that opens on button click and closes when clicking outside.

Prompt 2

Show me how to build a modal dialog in a Vue app using @headlessui/vue that traps keyboard focus inside and closes when the user presses Escape.

Prompt 3

Create a tabbed interface with @headlessui/react where switching tabs triggers a fade-in animation on the new panel.

Prompt 4

How do I use Headless UI's Combobox component to build a searchable autocomplete input in React with Tailwind CSS styling?

Frequently asked questions

What is headlessui?

A library of fully accessible, interactive UI components like dropdowns, modals, and tabs for React and Vue, all the keyboard navigation and screen-reader support is built in, but with zero visual styling so you control the design completely.

What language is headlessui written in?

Mainly TypeScript. The stack also includes TypeScript, React, Vue.

How hard is headlessui to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is headlessui for?

Mainly developer.

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