What is 21st.dev: New Component Hub

By

Dora Gurova

Updated:

August 9, 2025

Speed, reusability and collaboration have become cornerstones for the fast-moving front-end development ecosystem. Teams seek pre-built, high-quality UI components that are ready to use, easy to customize, and follow best practices. And that's exactly where 21st.dev comes in.

Let’s explore 21st.dev as the simplest way to put it is: it’s an open, community-driven registry for high-quality React UI components.

What Is 21st.dev?

21st.dev is an MCP (Microservice Communication Protocol) server that allows teams to generate UI components through an API. Forms, buttons, navigation bars, and cards – all built with just a few lines of code. So rather than spending hours on designing and tweaking these elements yourself, 21st.dev allows them via API calls.

From accordions and dropdown menus to complex modals and tables, 21st.dev components are packaged to be installed in seconds and integrated with minimal friction.

21st.dev will best suit the following cases:

Front-end developers who want ready-made UI building blocks.
Design engineers working on complex design systems.
Small teams and startups that need to ship products quickly without building every UI piece from scratch.
Open-source contributors who want to share their work with the community.

21st.dev key features:

Component marketplace: Browse, publish, and remix components. Each one comes with code, previews, and installation instructions.
AI-powered magic agent: Enter a prompt, and the platform generates multiple UI component variations instantly.
Easy CLI integration: Add components via npx commands directly into your codebase.
Community contributions: Every developer can submit their own components, helping the library grow.
Modern tech stack: Powered by Next.js, Supabase, Cloudflare R2, and other modern web technologies.
Open source roots: You can explore the 21st.dev GitHub repository to understand how it works and even contribute.

21st.dev in the context of the modern front-end workflow

21st.dev stays at an interesting intersection – it’s not a full app builder, including AI tools, nor is it just a passive code dump. It's a curated, developer-friendly source of reusable building blocks for a variety of development cases.

In practical terms, this means it integrates perfectly with workflows where:

Designers provide Figma or Sketch mockups.
Developers select matching 21st.dev UI components.
Components are slightly tweaked and merged into the product codebase.
Time spent reinventing UI elements is eliminated.

21st.dev vs UI Bakery AI App Generator

Feature / Aspect	21st.dev (“Magic” & component marketplace)	UI Bakery AI App Generator (UI Bakery)
Core Focus	AI-driven creation and sharing of UI components and templates. Emphasizes design craftsmanship over generic AI outputs.	AI-powered low-code platform for generating full-fledged data-driven web applications from prompts.
Primary Use Cases	Craft and remix UI blocks, templates, and components; integrate into development workflow.	Internal tools, CRUD apps, dashboards, admin panels, prototypes.
Interaction Model	Natural-language prompts assist in generating and refining UI components inside IDEs (e.g., VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf).	Natural-language-based generation of apps, supported by a visual low-code editor for post-generation refinement.
Integration & Development	Offers “Magic Component Platform” (MCP) that plugs directly into IDEs; seamless integration of generated components.	Integrates with databases (SQL/NoSQL), APIs (REST, GraphQL), supports Git version control and deployment.
Target Audience	UI/Design Engineers and frontend developers who want modular, style-conscious UI elements.	Developers and non-developers building internal tools or prototypes who want rapid, AI-assisted app generation.
Community & Marketplace	Built around a marketplace for reusable components; creators can publish and monetize elements.	No central marketplace; built for fast app scaffolding and customization.
Ideal Strengths	Speedy UI component creation, stylistic control, seamless IDE integration.	Fast app generation from prompts, strong data/backend integration, low-code flexibility.
Potential Drawbacks	Focused solely on UI—not a full app generator; relies on component integration.	May require refinement for complex logic; some learning curve and integration limits with uncommon systems.

Wrapping up

It’s a living library of modern UI components, powered by a passionate community and enhanced by AI, built to help developers ship beautiful interfaces faster.

Whether you’re creating a SaaS product, an internal dashboard, or a personal side project, 21st.dev can save you hours – sometimes days – of design and coding work. And when paired with full app generators like UI Bakery, it becomes a key piece of a highly productive modern development stack.