Head to head
Magic UI vs SmoothUI
Magic UI and SmoothUI solve the same job (UI component libraries), so this is a pick-one decision. Magic UI is our default here: Best stack fit of the animated libraries. Animated beams for a table-of-contents, number tickers for circulation stats, shimmer on a subscribe CTA, marquee for a sponsor row — polish without changing anything structural or blowing the image budget. Watch out: Some components pull GSAP as well as Motion. Premium blocks are subscription-priced, which is unusual here and unclear what happens to pasted blocks if you cancel.
Quick read
- Editor's pick: Magic UI.
- No logged gotchas: Magic UI.
| Field | Magic UImagicui.design Not yet swept | SmoothUIsmoothui.dev Not yet swept |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | 150+ animated components built with React, TypeScript, Tailwind and Motion, explicitly designed as the companion to shadcn/ui. Installs with the exact same CLI you already use. No Three.js dependency; components stay under ~5 kB tree-shaken. | 130 drop-in animated React components focused on micro-interactions — dynamic island, Siri-style orb, animated toggles and loaders. Built for React 19 and Tailwind v4, shadcn-CLI installable. |
| Category | UI component libraries | UI component libraries |
| Cost tier | free | free |
| Pricing | Free · MIT · Pro ~$199 once | Free · MIT · Pro ~$12–23/mo |
| Why builders pick it | Best stack fit of the animated libraries. Animated beams for a table-of-contents, number tickers for circulation stats, shimmer on a subscribe CTA, marquee for a sponsor row — polish without changing anything structural or blowing the image budget. | Garnish, not foundation. Pick one signature interaction for your project — an issue-flip toggle or a reading-progress element — and leave the rest. |
| Watch out for | not logged | Some components pull GSAP as well as Motion. Premium blocks are subscription-priced, which is unusual here and unclear what happens to pasted blocks if you cancel. |
| How to wire it up | pnpm dlx shadcn@latest add @magicui/globe | npx shadcn@latest add @smoothui/ |
| Editor's pick | Yes | No |
Other matchups worth running
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