The 10 Best Alternatives to Carbon Design in 2025

In the ever-evolving world of design systems, finding the right fit for your project can be a daunting task. While Carbon Design has its place, there are numerous other options that might better suit your specific needs.

This article explores ten alternatives to Carbon Design, each offering unique features and benefits. Whether you're looking for flexibility, ease of use, or specific functionalities, these alternatives provide a range of choices to consider.

What is Carbon Design?

Carbon Design System is IBM’s open-source design system for products and digital experiences. It is built on the IBM Design Language and includes working code, design tools, resources, and human interface guidelines.

The system also features a community of contributors and offers component libraries for various frameworks, as well as design kits for Figma and Sketch. Resources for designing, developing, migrating, and contributing are also available.

What to Consider When Selecting a Carbon Design Alternative?

1. Ease of Customization: The ability to easily customize themes and components to fit specific brand requirements is crucial. Look for design systems that offer flexible theming options and extensive customization capabilities.
2. Component Quality: High-quality, accessible components that enhance the user experience are essential. Ensure the design system provides well-documented, reusable components that adhere to accessibility standards.
3. Performance: Optimized performance with minimal bundle size and fast rendering is important. Choose a design system that is lightweight and ensures efficient performance without unnecessary dependencies.
4. Community and Support: A strong community and dedicated support can make a significant difference. Opt for design systems with active community involvement, comprehensive documentation, and support channels.
5. Framework Compatibility: Compatibility with popular frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular is vital. Ensure the design system integrates seamlessly with your existing tech stack and supports modern development practices.

Best Alternatives to Carbon Design in 2025

1) Subframe

Subframe is a code-first design tool that empowers users to build UI quickly and efficiently using a drag-and-drop visual editor. It offers real-time collaboration, responsive design, and high-quality front-end code, making it a favorite among both designers and developers. With hundreds of UI templates and pre-built components, Subframe supports React, Tailwind CSS, NextJS, and Vite, ensuring a seamless and intuitive design experience.

Pros of Using Subframe

Subframe offers a range of advantages that make it a standout choice for UI design and development.

• Design with real components: Subframe allows you to create UI using actual components rather than mockups, ensuring a more accurate and efficient design process.
• Stunning UI templates: With a collection of templates inspired by top-tier products and crafted by professional designers, you can jumpstart your projects without starting from scratch.
• High-quality front-end code: Subframe generates clean, reusable front-end code that you can easily integrate into your codebase, saving you time on manual coding.
• Visual UI building: The intuitive drag-and-drop editor lets you build responsive, pixel-perfect UI visually, making it accessible for both designers and developers.
• Free access: Start building your UI visually without any upfront costs or credit card requirements, making it easy to try out Subframe risk-free.

These are just a few of Subframe's many features. Check them out here to learn more.

Who Should Use Subframe?

Subframe targets designers, developers, and non-technical team members who need to build user interfaces quickly and efficiently. It is particularly suited for startups, growing teams, and agencies looking for a seamless design-to-development workflow.

Subframe Pricing

Subframe offers three pricing options:

• Free: $0 per user/month
• Pro: $29 per user/month
• Custom: Contact support for pricing

Subframe Reviews

Subframe has received glowing reviews from users, earning a perfect score of 5 out of 5. Users praise its ease of use and excellent support, with one user stating, "Huge shoutout to Subframe guys! Super easy to create UI, and the support is great. Highly recommend!" Another user mentioned, "Nobody on our team is a frontend engineer or designer, but Subframe allows us to look like we have it together in that department."

2) Ant Design

Ant Design is the world's second most popular React UI framework, designed to help designers and developers build beautiful products more flexibly and work with happiness. The latest version, Ant Design 5.0, leverages CSS-in-JS technology to offer dynamic and mixed theme abilities, along with practical components that meet various needs.

Pros of Using Ant Design

• CSS-in-JS Technology: Ant Design 5.0 uses CSS-in-JS to provide dynamic and mixed theme capabilities, allowing for more flexible and powerful theming options.
• Component-Level CSS-in-JS: This approach ensures better performance by scoping styles to individual components, reducing the risk of style conflicts and improving load times.
• Extendable Algorithm: The algorithm makes it easier to create custom themes, allowing developers to tailor the design system to their specific needs.

Cons of Using Ant Design

• Performance Issues: Users have reported significant performance degradation when rendering many components, leading to frame rates dropping below 1 second per frame. This can be particularly problematic for applications that require high responsiveness and smooth user interactions.
• Customization Difficulties: Customizing certain components can be challenging, with some users finding it tedious to work with forms and other elements. This can slow down development and make it harder to tailor the design system to specific project needs.

Ant Design Pricing

• Ant Design's pricing is not public. Contact their support for more info.

Ant Design Reviews

Ant Design has received mixed reviews from users, with a general score of 3 out of 5. Users frequently mention performance issues, difficulties with customization, and concerns about documentation being in Chinese.

3) Fluent UI

Fluent UI is a set of customizable, performant, and accessible React components designed to align with the Fluent Design Language through Design Tokens. It offers lightweight components optimized for bundle size and render performance, making it ideal for building consistent and accessible user interfaces.

Pros of Using Fluent UI

• Lightweight Components: These components are designed to be lightweight, resulting in a smaller bundle size and faster performance, which is crucial for web applications where load time and performance are critical.
• New Tokens System: This system ensures frictionless cohesion across different OS themes, making it easier to maintain a consistent look and feel across various platforms.
• New Assets: These assets are designed to enhance the user experience in Teams add-ins and Microsoft 365 (M365) experiences, providing a more integrated and polished look.

Cons of Using Fluent UI

• Performance Issues: Users have reported significant performance degradation when rendering many components, leading to frame rates dropping below 1 second per frame. This can be particularly problematic for applications that require high responsiveness and smooth user interactions.
• Customization Limitations: The design system is seen as extremely opinionated, limiting its flexibility for open use by others. Additionally, the lack of essential components like date and ticker pickers restricts its usability for certain applications.

Fluent UI Pricing

• Business Plan: $49 per user/month
• Enterprise Plan: $99 per user/month
• Custom Plan: Contact support for pricing

Fluent UI Reviews

Fluent UI has received mixed reviews from users, with a general score of 3 out of 5. Users frequently mention performance issues, difficulties with customization, and concerns about documentation being in Chinese.

4) Mantine

Mantine is a React components library designed to help developers build fully functional, accessible web applications faster. It includes over 100 customizable components and 50 hooks, offering extensive customization options and a dark theme out of the box.

Pros of Using Mantine

• 100+ Customizable Components: Mantine offers over 100 components that can be tailored to fit any design requirement, providing extensive flexibility and control over the UI.
• 50+ Hooks: The library includes more than 50 hooks to handle various functionalities, making it easier to manage state, effects, and other React features efficiently.
• Styles Overriding: Each component supports styles overriding for every internal element, allowing developers to adapt components to almost any design requirement seamlessly.

Cons of Using Mantine

• Steep Learning Curve: Despite its extensive documentation, some users find Mantine's learning curve to be quite steep, especially for beginners who are not familiar with React or advanced customization techniques.
• Limited Ecosystem: While Mantine offers a wide range of components, its ecosystem is not as extensive as some other design systems, which can limit its utility for more complex or specialized projects.

Mantine Pricing

• Business Plan: $49 per user/month
• Enterprise Plan: $99 per user/month
• Custom Plan: Contact support for pricing

Mantine Reviews

Mantine has received a score of 5 out of 5 based on a single review. Users generally indicate a positive opinion without detailed feedback.

5) Reshaped

Reshaped is a design system that provides accessible React components for building high-quality products or starting your own design system. It is designed to help teams and individuals build products quickly and efficiently, with a focus on flexibility and ease of use.

Pros of Using Reshaped

• Theming Architecture with Automatic Dark Mode Support: Reshaped's theming architecture strikes a balance between flexibility and constraints, making it easy for users to tweak the theme based on their brand and product. It also provides automatic dark mode support, enhancing user experience across different environments.
• Completely Accessible Components: All components in Reshaped are WCAG and WAI-ARIA compliant, ensuring that products built with Reshaped are accessible to everyone, including those using screen readers and other assistive technologies.
• Built with TypeScript: Reshaped components and utilities are type-safe, with types available for use in product code or when building custom components. This ensures a robust and error-free development experience.

Cons of Using Reshaped

• Steep Learning Curve: Despite its extensive documentation, some users find Reshaped's learning curve to be quite steep, especially for beginners who are not familiar with React or advanced customization techniques.
• Limited Ecosystem: While Reshaped offers a wide range of components, its ecosystem is not as extensive as some other design systems, which can limit its utility for more complex or specialized projects.

Reshaped Pricing

• Design License: $89
• Pro License: $999
• Enterprise License: Contact us

Reshaped Reviews

Reshaped has received a score of 3 out of 5. Users generally mention a steep learning curve and a limited ecosystem, which can restrict its utility for more complex projects.

6) Park UI

Park UI is a UI component framework that offers a comprehensive set of beautifully designed components built with Ark UI and Panda CSS, compatible with various JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue, and Solid.

Pros of Using Park UI

• Compatibility with Multiple Frameworks: Park UI supports React, Vue, and Solid, making it versatile for different development environments.
• Customizable Design System: Users can create their own design systems using Ark UI and Panda CSS, offering flexibility in design and implementation.
• Figma Kit: The availability of a Figma Kit helps designers to easily integrate and visualize UI components.

Cons of Using Park UI

• Steep Learning Curve: Despite its extensive documentation, some users find Park UI's learning curve to be quite steep, especially for beginners who are not familiar with advanced customization techniques.
• Limited Ecosystem: While Park UI offers a wide range of components, its ecosystem is not as extensive as some other design systems, which can limit its utility for more complex or specialized projects.

Park UI Pricing

• Starter Plan: $19/month

Park UI Reviews

Park UI has received a score of 2 out of 5. Users generally mention a steep learning curve and a limited ecosystem, which can restrict its utility for more complex projects.

7) React Bootstrap

React Bootstrap is a popular front-end framework rebuilt specifically for React, replacing the Bootstrap JavaScript with true React components. It embraces the Bootstrap core for compatibility, ensuring seamless integration with existing Bootstrap themes while providing accessible-by-default components.

Pros of Using React Bootstrap

• True React Components: Built from scratch as true React components, ensuring seamless integration with React applications.
• No Unneeded Dependencies: Eliminates the need for jQuery, reducing the overall bundle size and improving performance.
• Accessible by Default: Each component is designed with accessibility in mind, providing more control over form and function compared to plain Bootstrap.

Cons of Using React Bootstrap

• Limited Customization: React Bootstrap can be restrictive when it comes to customization. While it offers a range of components, the framework's reliance on Bootstrap's core styles can make it challenging to deviate from the default look and feel, limiting design flexibility.
• Performance Overhead: Despite being rebuilt for React, React Bootstrap can introduce performance overhead due to its comprehensive set of components and styles. This can lead to slower load times and reduced performance, especially in large-scale applications.

React Bootstrap Pricing

React Bootstrap's pricing is not public. Contact their support for more info.

React Bootstrap Reviews

React Bootstrap has received a score of 2 out of 5. Users generally mention limited customization options and performance overhead, which can lead to slower load times and reduced performance in large-scale applications.

8) NextUI

NextUI is a React UI library that provides a collection of components designed to help developers build beautiful, fast, and modern web applications. It emphasizes accessibility, customization, and a great developer experience.

Pros of Using NextUI

• Themeable: HeroUI provides customizable default themes and the ability to create new themes, allowing developers to tailor the design to their specific needs.
• Fast: Built on Tailwind CSS, HeroUI ensures no runtime styles and no unnecessary classes, leading to faster performance and a more efficient development process.
• Accessibility: Components are built on React Aria, ensuring exceptional accessibility support, including keyboard navigation, managed focus, and screen reader compatibility.

Cons of Using NextUI

• Steep Learning Curve: Despite its extensive documentation, some users find NextUI's learning curve to be quite steep, especially for beginners who are not familiar with advanced customization techniques.
• Limited Ecosystem: While NextUI offers a wide range of components, its ecosystem is not as extensive as some other design systems, which can limit its utility for more complex or specialized projects.

NextUI Pricing

• Solo Plan: $249 (one-time payment plus local taxes)
• Startup Plan: $399 (one-time payment plus local taxes)
• Organization Plan: $799 (one-time payment plus local taxes)

NextUI Reviews

NextUI has received a score of 4.8 out of 5 based on 15 reviews. Users generally mention its suitability for various business needs and its combination with TailwindCSS.

9) Tetrisly

Tetrisly is a design system that offers user-friendly components designed for effortless integration, fully compatible with Tetrisly for Figma, providing a seamless design and development experience.

Pros of Using Tetrisly

• TypeScript Support: Enhanced type safety, autocompletion, and IDE support, improving development and minimizing errors.
• Export Design Tokens: Converts Figma Variables into React-ready code using a Figma plugin, ensuring seamless transitions.
• Customization Variables: Allows effortless tailoring of UIs using Figma Variables, skipping manual updates for a streamlined design process.

Cons of Using Tetrisly

• Steep Learning Curve: Despite its extensive documentation, some users find Tetrisly's learning curve to be quite steep, especially for beginners who are not familiar with advanced customization techniques.
• Limited Ecosystem: While Tetrisly offers a wide range of components, its ecosystem is not as extensive as some other design systems, which can limit its utility for more complex or specialized projects.

Tetrisly Pricing

• Solo Plan: $249 (one-time payment plus local taxes)
• Startup Plan: $399 (one-time payment plus local taxes)
• Organization Plan: $799 (one-time payment plus local taxes)

Tetrisly Reviews

Tetrisly has received a score of 5 out of 5 based on 34 reviews. Users generally mention a steep learning curve and a limited ecosystem, which can restrict its utility for more complex projects.

10) Framework7

Framework7 is a comprehensive framework designed for building full-featured iOS, Android, and desktop applications with a native look and feel. It offers a rich set of UI components and supports web apps, progressive web apps (PWA), and native desktop apps when paired with tools like Electron and NW.js.

Pros of Using Framework7

• Extensive UI Components: Framework7 offers a comprehensive set of ready-to-use UI elements, including dialogs, popups, action sheets, popovers, list views, tabs, side panels, layout grids, preloaders, form elements, and cards, making it easy to build feature-rich applications.
• Platform Compatibility: It supports the creation of web apps, PWAs, and native iOS/Android apps, and can be paired with Electron and NW.js for desktop applications, providing a versatile solution for multi-platform development.
• Framework Integration: Framework7 can be used with plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, or integrated with popular frameworks like Vue.js, React, and Svelte, offering flexibility and ease of use for developers with different preferences and expertise.

Cons of Using Framework7

• Steep Learning Curve: Despite its extensive documentation, some users find Framework7's learning curve to be quite steep, especially for beginners who are not familiar with advanced customization techniques.
• Performance Overhead: Framework7 can introduce performance overhead due to its comprehensive set of components and styles, which can lead to slower load times and reduced performance, especially in large-scale applications.

Framework7 Pricing

Framework7's pricing is not public. Contact their support for more info.

Framework7 Reviews

Framework7 has received a score of 2 out of 5. Users generally mention a steep learning curve and performance overhead, which can lead to slower load times and reduced performance in large-scale applications.

Which One Should You Go With?

Choosing the right design system ultimately depends on your specific needs and preferences. Each of the alternatives to Carbon Design offers unique features and benefits, making them suitable for various projects and teams. Whether you prioritize customization, performance, or community support, there's an option that will fit your requirements.

If you're looking for a versatile and user-friendly tool, we recommend Subframe. With its drag-and-drop visual editor, real-time collaboration, and high-quality front-end code generation, Subframe stands out as a top choice for both designers and developers. Explore the options and find the one that best aligns with your goals, but don't hesitate to give Subframe a try for a seamless design-to-development workflow.