Copy-paste libraries like shadcn/ui have taken off in popularity. They give you full ownership and control of the code while encouraging you to expand and customize the components or modules to suit your project’s needs.
Unlike NPM modules, which offer a black-box implementation, these libraries make it easy to understand every line of code, you can use only the parts you need and avoid being stuck with a deprecated package down the line as you can easily make changes to the codebase yourself.
This flexibility makes it so much easier to mix libraries and make two-way door decisions so you can move faster in those early days of your new projects and reduce technical debt.
As 2024 wraps up, I took some time over the holidays to put together a list of the top JS/TS libraries you can copy and paste into your projects.
1. shadcn/ui
Starting with the library that started this trend: shadcn/ui. It provides beautifully designed, highly customizable UI components for web apps. Supporting a wide range of frameworks, it has a great community and is backed by Vercel (creators of Next.js). It’s quickly becoming the go-to component library for new frontend projects.
Project links: shadcn/ui
2. Vratix
Next, we will cover a relatively new library which helps you build production-ready Node.js + Express.js APIs in seconds. Like shadcn/ui, it gives you full ownership of the source code, with API Modules that are easy to use, well-documented, and built to save weeks of backend development. It went into public beta last month so it offers a limited list of API modules and supported frameworks, but the team has a list of API Modules that will be released soon.
Vratix offers complete implementations, it is not just a starting point. Each module comes with the full business logic, DB integration, deployment configs, tests and Postman API Collections.
Project link: Vratix
3. Magic UI
If you like shadcn/ui but want to start with more polished, animated components, Magic UI is for you. Heavily inspired by shadcn/ui, it offers a similar concept but with a modern and refined touch that makes it perfect for modern, visually appealing websites.
Project link: Magic UI
4. CuiCui (pronounced QuickUI)
CuiCui is a collection of components, tools, and hooks that are designed to be simple, customizable and educational. If I need to compare it to shadcn/ui and Magic UI, I think it stays just in between those two libraries.
It offers a large list of basic components, that are built for different use cases (Application UI, Marketing UI, Utils, etc), but at the same time, some of them are animated and styled a bit more than just basic UI.
Project link: CuiCui
While most copy-paste libraries focus on frontend UI components, tools like Vratix are working to change this for backend developers. They offer highly customizable, open-source solutions to make building APIs as fast and straightforward as spinning up a new React app.
Are you planning to use any of these libraries in 2025? If you’ve used others, let me know - I would love to check them out and maybe add them to this list.
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