[opensourcedex]

flowbite is a free, open source design & prototyping project written in HTML and released under MIT. It has 9,381 GitHub stars, 867 forks and 257 open issues, and was last pushed 4 months ago. On this registry it ranks #30 of 111 tracked projects in Design & Prototyping, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 17 stars over the last 30 tracked days.

What is flowbite?

Flowbite is an open-source UI component library and front-end development framework built on top of Tailwind CSS, intended for developers and design teams who want ready-made components rather than writing every utility class by hand.

What it is

Flowbite is a component library and front-end development framework that sits on top of Tailwind CSS. It installs into an existing Tailwind project as a plugin and ships a set of web components built with Tailwind's utility classes, together with the JavaScript that powers the interactive elements. The package is distributed through NPM as flowbite, and it also publishes browser-ready builds at dist/flowbite.min.css and dist/flowbite.min.js for inclusion via CDN. The project is licensed under MIT, its primary language is HTML, and it carries topics including components, css, design-system, tailwind, tailwindcss, javascript, figma, eslint, prettier and hugo. It is built to work with Tailwind CSS v4, with a documented upgrade path for older projects still on v3.

The problem it solves is repetition and drift in Tailwind markup. Tailwind provides utility classes but no component vocabulary, so every button, dropdown, modal and navbar has to be assembled by hand and kept consistent across a codebase. Flowbite replaces that hand-written assembly with a defined component set and attaches behaviour to those components through data attributes, so interactive elements work without custom event wiring. Design and engineering teams end up with one shared component layer instead of parallel, diverging implementations.

Key capabilities

  • Installs into an existing Tailwind CSS project with npm install flowbite, then @plugin "flowbite/plugin" and @source "../node_modules/flowbite" in the project CSS.
  • Ships five theme presets imported from flowbite/src/themes/: default, minimal, enterprise, playful and mono.
  • Drives interactive components through a data attributes interface, with event listeners applied automatically by the bundled import 'flowbite' JavaScript.
  • Offers CDN delivery through dist/flowbite.min.css and dist/flowbite.min.js for projects without a build step.
  • Provides a UMD-ready bundled JavaScript file that works with bundlers such as Webpack or Parcel, alongside ESM and CJS entry points.
  • Includes TypeScript support and RTL support.
  • Extends beyond code with a Figma design system, Flowbite Blocks, Flowbite Icons and Flowbite GPT.

Who uses it and how

  • Front-end developers adding it as a plugin to an existing Tailwind CSS v4 project, with a documented upgrade route for v3 codebases.
  • Teams building pages without a bundler, placing the minified CDN stylesheet inside the head tag and the script before the closing body tag.
  • Applications bundled with Webpack or Parcel that import flowbite into app-bundle.js, so data attributes and component behaviour work out of the box.
  • Projects on JavaScript frameworks and back-end frameworks, both of which the README addresses, with Hugo appearing among the repository topics.
  • Designers working in the Figma design system to keep prototypes and shipped components aligned.

Getting started

Install the package with npm install flowbite, import a theme from flowbite/src/themes/ in the main CSS file, then add @plugin "flowbite/plugin" and @source "../node_modules/flowbite". Alternatively, load dist/flowbite.min.css and dist/flowbite.min.js from the CDN.

How it compares

The facts do not name paid products that Flowbite replaces, so the comparison is structural: it occupies the component layer directly above Tailwind CSS, which supplies the utility classes it depends on, and it does not stand alone as a CSS framework. No peer component library is named anywhere in the facts, and the other tags it carries — Figma, Hugo, ESLint and Prettier — describe adjacent tooling rather than alternatives.

When to use it — and when not to

Choose it when the project already uses Tailwind CSS and needs a consistent component layer without inventing one. A self-hoster should note that it is not self-hosted software in the server sense: it is a package installed into a front-end build, so there is no database, storage or mail service to operate, though a CDN-only setup gives up the class purging the README recommends. It is a poor fit for teams not using Tailwind or wanting a framework-agnostic stylesheet, and the repository carries 257 open issues, so prospective users should check the tracker before depending on a specific component. The README also points to a Pro version and to paid hiring, which means the MIT-licensed core is not the whole of the offering.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline


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Table of Contents

Documentation

For full documentation, visit flowbite.com.

Getting started

Flowbite can be included as a plugin into an existing Tailwind CSS project and it is supposed to help you build websites faster by having a set of web components to work with built with the utility classes from Tailwind CSS.

Install using NPM

Make sure that you have Node.js and Tailwind CSS installed. This guide works with Tailwind v4.

  1. Install Flowbite as a dependency using NPM by running the following command:
npm install flowbite
  1. Import the default theme variables from Flowbite inside your main input.css CSS file:
/* choose one of the following */

@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter:wght@300;400;500;600;700;800&display=swap');
@import "flowbite/src/themes/default";

/* MINIMAL THEME
@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Open+Sans:ital,wght@0,300..800;1,300..800&display=swap');
@import "flowbite/src/themes/minimal";
*/

/* ENTERPRISE THEME
@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Shantell+Sans:ital,wght@0,300..800;1,300..800&display=swap');
@import "flowbite/src/themes/enterprise";
*/

/* PLAYFUL THEME
@import url('https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Google+Sans+Code:ital,wght@0,300..800;1,300..800&display=swap');
@import "flowbite/src/themes/playful";
*/

/* MONO THEME
@import "flowbite/src/themes/mono";
*/
  1. Import the Flowbite plugin file in your CSS:
@plugin "flowbite/plugin";
  1. Configure the source files of Flowbite in your CSS:
@source "../node_modules/flowbite";
  1. Include the JavaScript code that powers the interactive elements before the end of your `` tag:
<script src="../path/to/flowbite/dist/flowbite.min.js"></script>

Learn more about the Flowbite JavaScript API and functionalities in the JavaScript section.

If you have and old project with Tailwind CSS v3 then check out this guide to learn how to upgrade to v4.

Include using CDN

The quickest way to get started working with Flowbite is to include the CSS and JS into your project via CDN.

Require the following minified stylesheet inside the head tag:

<link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/flowbite@{{< current_version >}}/dist/flowbite.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />

And include the following JavaScript file before the end of the body element:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/flowbite@{{< current_version >}}/dist/flowbite.min.js"></script>

Please remember that the best way to work with Tailwind CSS and Flowbite is by purging the CSS classes.

Bundled JavaScript

One of the most popular way of using Flowbite is to include the bundled Javascript file which is UMD ready using a bundler such as Webpack or Parcel which makes sure that all of the data attributes and functionality will work out-of-the-box.

You can directly import the main JavaScript file inside your bundled app-bundle.js file like this:

import 'flowbite';

This file has access to all of the components and it automatically applies event listeners to the data attributes.

Data attributes

The preferred way to use the interactive UI components from Flowbite is via the data attributes interface which allows us to add functionality via the HTML element attributes and most of the examples on our documentation applies this strategy.

For example, to set up a modal component all you need to do is use data-modal-target and data-modal-{toggle|show|hide} to toggle, show, or hide the component by clicking on any trigger element.

<button data-modal-target="defaultModal" data-modal-toggle="defaultModal" class="block text-white bg-blue-700 hover:bg-blue-800 focus:ring-4 focus:outline-none focus:ring-blue-300 font-medium rounded-lg text-sm px-5 py-2.5 text-center dark:bg-blue-600 dark:hover:bg-blue-700 dark:focus:ring-blue-800" type="button">
  Toggle modal
</button>

<!-- Main modal -->
<div id="defaultModal" tabindex="-1" aria-hidden="true" class="fixed top-0 left-0 right-0 z-50 hidden w-full p-4 overflow-x-hidden overflow-y-auto md:inset-0 h-[calc(100%-1rem)] max-h-full">
    <div class="relative w-full max-w-2xl max-h-full">
        <!-- Modal content -->
        <div class="relative bg-white rounded-lg shadow-sm dark:bg-gray-700">
            <!-- Modal header -->
            <div class="flex items-start justify-between p-4 border-b rounded-t dark:border-gray-600 border-gray-200">
                <h3 class="text-xl font-semibold text-gray-900 dark:text-white">
                    Terms of Service
                </h3>
                <button type="button" class="text-gray-400 bg-transparent hover:bg-gray-200 hover:text-gray-900 rounded-lg text-sm p-1.5 ml-auto inline-flex items-center dark:hover:bg-gray-600 dark:hover:text-white" data-modal-hide="defaultModal">
                    <svg aria-hidden="true" class="w-5 h-5" fill="currentColor" viewBox="0 0 20 20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4.293 4.293a1 1 0 011.414 0L10 8.586l4.293-4.293a1 1 0 111.414 1.414L11.414 10l4.293 4.293a1 1 0 01-1.414 1.414L10 11.414l-4.293 4.293a1 1 0 01-1.414-1.414L8.586 10 4.293 5.707a1 1 0 010-1.414z" clip-rule="evenodd"></path></svg>
                    <span class="sr-only">Close modal</span>
                </button>
            </div>
            <!-- Modal body -->
            <div class="p-6 space-y-6">
                <p class="text-base leading-relaxed text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">
                    With less than a month to go before the European Union enacts new consumer privacy laws for its citizens, companies around the world are updating their terms of service agreements to comply.
                </p>
                <p class="text-base leading-relaxed text-gray-500 dark:text-gray-400">
                    The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (G.D.P.R.) goes into effect on May 25 and is meant to ensure a common set of data rights in the European Union. It requires organizations to notify users as soon as possible of high-risk data breaches that could personally affect them.
                </p>
            </div>
            <!-- Modal footer -->
            <div class="flex items-center p-6 space-x-2 border-t border-gray-200 rounded-b dark:border-gray-600">
                <button data-modal-hide="defaultModal" type="button" class="text-white bg-blue-700 hover:bg-blue-800 focus:ring-4 focus:outline-none focus:ring-blue-300 font-medium rounded-lg text-sm px-5 py-2.5 text-center dark:bg-blue-600 dark:hover:bg-blue-700 dark:focus:ring-blue-800">I accept</button>
                <button data-modal-hide="defaultModal" type="button" class="text-gray-500 bg-white hover:bg-gray-100 focus:ring-4 focus:outline-none focus:ring-blue-300 rounded-lg border border-gray-200 text-sm font-medium px-5 py-2.5 hover:text-gray-900 focus:z-10 dark:bg-gray-700 dark:text-gray-300 dark:border-gray-500 dark:hover:text-white dark:hover:bg-gray-600 dark:focus:ring-gray-600">Decline</button>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
Init functions

You can also use the init functions to set up the event listeners yourself. Here's an example how you can do it with Vue or Nuxt:

<script setup>
import { onMounted } from 'vue'
import { initFlowbite } from 'flowbite'

// initialize components based on data attribute selectors
onMounted(() => {
    initFlowbite();
})
</script>

<template>
    // Modal HTML markup with data attributes from Flowbite
</template>

The initFlowbite function sets up all of the init functions for dropdowns, modals, navbars, tooltips and so on to hook onto the data attributes. Alternatively, you can also initialise each component category class separately with initDropdowns or initModals.

You can view more examples by browsing the components from Flowbite.

ESM and CJS

Flowbite also offers an API for using the components programmatically and it supports both CJS and ESM for JavaScript which can be helpful if you need to expand the default capabilities of the data attributes interface and get access to function callbacks.

Here's an example how you can import and create a new Modal component inside 

import { Modal } from 'flowbite'

const $modalElement = document.querySelector('#modalEl');

const modalOptions = {
    placement: 'bottom-right',
    backdrop: 'dynamic',
    backdropClasses: 'bg-gray-900/50 dark:bg-gray-900/80 fixed inset-0 z-40',
    onHide: () => {
        console.log('modal is hidden');
    },
    onShow: () => {
        console.log('modal is shown');
    },
    onToggle: () => {
        console.log('modal has been toggled');
    }
}

const modal = new Modal($modalElement, modalOptions);

modal.show();

Check out the JavaScript behaviour section of each component's page to learn how you can use this.

TypeScript

Flowbite supports type declarations for the interactive UI components including object interfaces and parameter types. Check out the following examples to learn how you can use types with Flowbite.

Additionally to our code above, we will now import some relevant types from the Flowbite package, namely the ModalOptions and ModalInterface:

import { Modal } from 'flowbite'
import type { ModalOptions, ModalInterface } from 'flowbite'

// other code

Generally speaking, all of the components have an interface definition that you can use whenever you create a new object to make sure that you're using the correct types of parameters and methods.

When creating a new modal you can set the ModalInterface as the main type:

const modal: ModalInterface = new Modal($modalElement, modalOptions);

Flowbite also supports type definitions for the options object so if you want to set the placement of the modal based on types, here's how you would do that:

const modalOptions: ModalOptions = {
    placement: 'top-right'
}

const modal: ModalInterface = new Modal($modalElement, modalOptions);

Learn more about Flowbite and TypeScript in the quickstart guide.

RTL support

All of the Flowbite UI components have native RTL support and you can easily set it up by using the dir="rtl" attribute on the HTML element. Read more about Flowbite and RTL support here.

JavaScript Frameworks

The awesome open-source community also built and currently maintains the following standalone libraries for React, Vue, Svelte, Angular and Qwik:

We also wrote integration guides for the following front-end frameworks and libraries:

Back-end Frameworks

Flowbite has a great integration with most of the back-end frameworks because it relies on vanilla

Components

Flowbite is an open source collection of UI components built with the utility classes from Tailwind CSS that you can use as a starting point when coding user interfaces and websites.

Alerts Badge Breadcrumbs
Buttons Button group Cards
Dropdown Forms List group
Typography Modal Tabs
Navbar Pagination Timeline
Progress bar Tables Toast
Tooltips Datepicker Spinner
Footer Accordion Sidebar
Carousel Avatar Rating
Input Field File Input Search Input
Select Textarea Checkbox
Radio Toggle Range Slider
Floating Label Mega Menu Skeleton
KBD (keyboard) Drawer (offcanvas) Popover
Video Heading Paragraph
Blockquote Image List
Link Text Horizontal line (HR)
Speed Dial Stepper Indicators
Bottom Navigation Sticky Banner Gallery (Masonry)
Jumbotron Device mockups Charts
Number Input Phone Input Chat Bubble
Copy to Clipboard Timepicker DataTables
WYSIWYG Editor QR Code

Figma Design System

If you need the Figma files for the components you can check out our website for more information:

🎨 Get access to the Figma design files

Flowbite Blocks

Check out Flowbite Blocks to get access to over 400+ website sections coded in Tailwind CSS and Flowbite:

📦 Check out Flowbite Blocks

Flowbite Icons

Start using over 450+ free and open-source collection of solid and outline SVG icons built for Tailwind CSS and with support for Figma and JSX (React):

🔍 Check out the icons

Flowbite GPT

We've developed a custom trained ChatGPT model that you can use to generate website sections and pages based on the resources from Flowbite and Tailwind CSS.

🤖 Generate with Flowbite GPT

Pro version

Get access to all premium features including the Figma design system, access to all Flowbite Block sections and a dashboard UI interface:

💎 Check out Flowbite Pro

Hire us

If you're ready to take your application to the next level you can work with us on your project with developers who have been using Flowbite and Tailwind CSS.

🙋‍♂️ Work with us

Learn Design Concepts

If you want to create even better Flowbite pages, learn design fundamentals from Teach Me Design - Enhance UI, a book that covers color theory, typography, UI and UX so you can make the most to implement the Flowbite Ecosystem!

📖 Learn with Enhance UI

Community

If you need help or just want to discuss about the library join the community on Github:

⌨️ Discuss about Flowbite on GitHub

For casual chatting with others using the library:

💬 Join the Flowbite Discord Server

Video tutorials and presentations using Flowbite:

🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel

Copyright and license

The Flowbite name and logos are trademarks of Bergside Inc.

Frequently asked questions

Is flowbite free to use?

flowbite is open source under the MIT licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does flowbite do?

Open-source UI component library and front-end development framework based on Tailwind CSS

What is flowbite written in?

flowbite is primarily written in HTML. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/themesberg/flowbite, and it has 9,381 GitHub stars.