As the Tailwind project progressed, it became clear that the term “functional CSS” was too generic for such a unique framework and approach. Thus, in early 2018, it was rebranded as “Tailwind CSS.” The name was an apt metaphor for the mission: to create a tool that will help professional developers seamlessly navigate through the many variables and options of CSS.
Since its official change and launch, Tailwind CSS has been growing exponentially in popularity. The adoption of the framework has been aided by its developer-centric design and an active community of effective kuwait mobile numbers list developers who regularly contribute to its ecosystem. The launch of Tailwind UI in 2020 was a major milestone that provided a vast library of ready-to-use components, further enhancing the framework’s appeal.
PurgeCSS: An Efficient Approach
Many developers may be surprised at the prospect of a utility-first CSS framework, given the potential for file size growth. The idea here is that if you load “every possible Tailwind CSS class,” you’ll end up with a particularly large CSS file. This concern, while valid, is negated by the way Tailwind uses PurgeCSS automatically, with no configuration required.
PurgeCSS significantly reduces the size of the final CSS file by removing unused classes from the stylesheet, thus ensuring that your production build is as painless as possible. Thanks to PurgeCSS, Tailwind’s utility-first approach doesn’t bloat the file size, making it a viable option for performance-conscious projects. It should be your default choice if you care about web performance (and core web vitals )!
To justify that claim, let's briefly mention the alternatives. If you use CSS-in-JS, you'll bloat each component and have no reusability, so let's say you end up with 100KB of data transfer. The BEM model will be similar as you'll write display: flex; in several dozen separate components, resulting in ~100KB of data transfer.
In theory, you could optimize a regular CSS file, with or without PurgeCSS, but I’ve never seen anyone do it. Typical professional-grade CSS files tend to be 10,000 lines or more, and you usually can’t strip anything out to prevent them from breaking — at least not without a tool like PurgeCSS. In comparison, Tailwind CSS will only send the required CSS, which typically results in only 20 to 40 KB of data transfer for a large website.
The developer experience is intuitive and simple
The rise of Tailwind CSS cannot be attributed solely to its technical features. The overall developer experience it offers is a major factor in its popularity. Once you get used to it, you'll find Tailwind intuitive; putting classes directly into HTML feels normal and requires less typing than CSS.
Tailwind Community and Resources
Tailwind CSS has a thriving community that contributes to its growth. The availability of tutorials, resources, and plugins built around Tailwind makes learning and using the framework more accessible. A great example is the “ Line Wrapping Plugin ,” which automatically shortens lines using ellipses (…). That plugin was so popular that it’s now integrated into Tailwind!
Additionally, the Tailwind development team communicates frequently with the community, making updates and refining the product based on user feedback.
Conclusion