Overview
Base UI is an unstyled component library for React focused on accessibility, performance and developer experience. Its team lists people from Radix, Material UI and Floating UI, and the code lives in MUI's mui/base-ui repository. Everything ships in a single tree-shakeable @base-ui/react package.
Version 1.0 arrived on 11 December 2025 with 35 components. Since then the release log shows a minor release roughly every month: Drawer (stable in March 2026), OTP field (stable in June 2026), Combobox and Autocomplete work, a CSP provider, and repeated accessibility and performance fixes. Browser support follows Baseline Widely Available features at the time of the last major.
Components are assembled from parts (Root, Trigger, Portal, Positioner, Popup) and you style each part yourself. The quick start asks you to add an isolation: isolate rule to your app root so portaled popups stack correctly, and a body position rule for iOS 26 Safari backdrops. For pre-styled components the docs point to shadcn/ui, which can use Base UI as its foundation. MUI has also said new Material UI components are being built on Base UI.
Pricing and plans
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Open source | Free | MIT licence |
What it does
- 35+ unstyled components
- Dialog, Popover, Menu, Select, Combobox, Autocomplete, Drawer, NumberField, OTPField, Toast and more.
- Part-based API
- Each component exposes its DOM parts so you can style, wrap or remove them.
- Form handling
- Field, validation and native form submission support across inputs.
- CSP provider
- Configures content security policy behaviour for inline styles.
- LLM-friendly docs
- Every page has a Markdown view and there is an llms.txt index.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Frequent releases through 2026
- Backed by the MUI company with a named team
- Works with any styling approach
- Supported as a base layer by shadcn/ui
Limitations
- React only
- No styles included; you build the visual layer
- Needs an app-root stacking context rule for popups to layer correctly
- Younger than Radix, so fewer third-party examples
Who it suits
Good for
- Teams building a custom design system in React
- New shadcn/ui projects choosing a primitive layer
- Apps that need complex inputs such as Combobox or NumberField
Look elsewhere if
- Non-React stacks
- Teams that want a styled library with a default theme
Pricing history
-
Base UI reaches v1.0
Released 11 December 2025: first stable version with 35 unstyled components and the new @base-ui/react package. Source ↗
Alternatives to Base UI
| Tool | From | Free option | Stages |
|---|---|---|---|
| PrimeVue Vue component suite (commercial licence from v5) | — | Free tier | |
| Radix UI Unstyled accessible React primitives | — | ||
| PrimeReact React component suite (commercial licence from v11) | — | Free tier | |
| Vuetify Material Design component framework for Vue | — | ||
| Ant Design Enterprise React component library | — | ||
| Angular Material Official Material Design components for Angular | — |
Questions
Is Base UI stable?
Yes. v1.0 was released on 11 December 2025 and minor versions follow roughly monthly.
Who makes Base UI?
A team at MUI including creators of Radix and Floating UI; the repository is mui/base-ui.
Does Base UI include styles?
No. It is unstyled; shadcn/ui offers a styled layer on top of it.
Sources read for this page