The Design System Dilemma for Rails Apps in 2025

Choosing a well-made design system for your application should be a simple task in 2025, yet for Rails apps, it's not. The author, building Business Class, faced this dilemma. Initial attempts with Bulma and Tailwind proved unsatisfactory. The article explores several options: shadcn/ui (requiring Rails integration), daisyUI (lightweight but lacks JavaScript), Flowbite (officially supports Rails, but not fully open-source), Preline (feature-rich, freemium), and RubyUI (built for Ruby, but uses Phlex and requires leaving ERB). Ultimately, the author concludes that continuing with a Tailwind-based approach, either leveraging a pre-built UI library or building a custom theme, is the best path forward.