I am a not-good-at-ui dev, meaning I _can_ build UIs pixel perfect if given some exact design files, but it is incredible hard for me to come up with things on my own. So whenever I build something that is not already defined fully by designers (like: most of the time), I have to use some UI component catalog like bootstrap and start assembling my UI based on the options there, at most I switch a theme file to something more fancy.
I basically was squarely the target group of bootstrap, and used it for lots of projects in all versions. I didn't actually care much about their technical progess (float, flex, css-grid, whatever), I just copypaste from the available widgets and add in my data.
Just LAST WEEK I learned that my favorite web framework (https://phoenixframework.org/) now ships with Tailwind preconfigured by default. I also heard good things about it from trusted colleagues. So, for the next big project I decided to jump in. Still I kind of have concerns: I need "typical components" like cards/tables/grid/... to be only a copypaste away; and I need to allow some designers be able to tweak the overall look and feel, roughly like a theming file where fonts/colors/... are defined at a single place. I hope it will be smooth after all these years of bootstrap and the "muscle memory" of how to compose pages with it.
At the beginning, it's going to feel like a drop in velocity. If you only copy and paste raw code and do not make components, then it will feel like a lot of work to change the accent color from blue to yellow (unless you're really good with regex).
If you want a more Bootstrap like experience, look into something like DaisyUI. It gives you a high level primitive similar to Bootstrap, but built on the philosophy of Tailwind in regards to ultimate customization using utilities.
If/when you get more comfortable with the tailwind primitives, you can easily make your own component abstractions that work for your needs.
I made a Chrome extension called SnipCSS that is made for not-good-at-ui devs.
Instead of using a framework, I just rip other sections of website designs I like using my tool. The paid version even scopes the snippet and gets all responsive styles.
Theming abilities are on the roadmap and with AI being able to adjust my snippets eventually - I really don’t see the need for extremely verbose frameworks like Tailwind. But I could be wrong, I’m probably biased after having worked on it for a couple years.
I basically was squarely the target group of bootstrap, and used it for lots of projects in all versions. I didn't actually care much about their technical progess (float, flex, css-grid, whatever), I just copypaste from the available widgets and add in my data.
Just LAST WEEK I learned that my favorite web framework (https://phoenixframework.org/) now ships with Tailwind preconfigured by default. I also heard good things about it from trusted colleagues. So, for the next big project I decided to jump in. Still I kind of have concerns: I need "typical components" like cards/tables/grid/... to be only a copypaste away; and I need to allow some designers be able to tweak the overall look and feel, roughly like a theming file where fonts/colors/... are defined at a single place. I hope it will be smooth after all these years of bootstrap and the "muscle memory" of how to compose pages with it.