Tailwind CSS! To use? Or not to use? That is the question.

I also love the different perspective that TailwindCSS brings to CSS frameworks, and it’s JIT mode that pushes PurgeCSS concept even further. However I also know that I have to never fall in love with a programming language or framework as they all serve best in different situations.

Tailwind CSS is an excellent choice for a project that is actively developed by a team and/or if it doesn’t require daily and quick releases. It produces a clean and small file without unnecessary CSS statements. But what if it is blog, or required a dynamic content creation process. What if you need an additional style that you don’t require today? What if it will be used by a team without a developer? Do you think that Tailwind CSS is a suitable solution for such requirements?

Let’s say you want to add some padding to an element by adding a “p-3” class. Ops! The class “p-3” is not added to css by JIT at build time. When you need to design a blog page really quick with some additional classes and see that it is not available in the stylesheet, you may notice that Tailwind CSS is not the perfect choice for every situation.

I encountered this problem with my previous Tailwind CSS based theme a lot. While developing the current one, I have added many potential classes for the future. This not only increased the size of the style file but can’t guarantee that I will have all the required classes in the future. I have the chance to add any missing classes in the future, but a non-developer user can’t add required styles even if he knows Tailwind CSS’ classes, as they might be not available in my build.

Briefly; If you have a single or a team of developers focused on the frontend, Tailwind CSS is a perfect choice. If the site needs regular updates without a dedicated developer then using another CSS framework like Bootstrap or Bulma might be a wiser choice.

What is your opinion? Please share your thoughts in below comments section.