React Aria is in a league of its own

Published about 1 year ago

You should know that React Aria is in a league of its own.

Headless UI, Radix, Ariakit, and others—they could all be implemented as opinionated component wrappers around React Aria hooks if someone had time and reasons to do it.

I have yet to find a feature in any compound component library that React Aria hooks can't do, and in many cases, do in a more accessible and widely compatible way. I can open the React Aria docs and find dozens of first-class features that no one else implements, let alone exposes for configuration.

React Aria is a giant box of sharp knives (hooks), but it comes with cut-resistant gloves (beautiful docs, exquisitely consistent APIs!).

In a parallel universe, no one writes compound components. There are multiple hook-based libraries in friendly technical competition with React Aria, pushing web tech and accessibility to hitherto unknown levels of quality. Hot dogs for fingers, proverbially.

Jamie Lee Curtis (me) playing piano (happily crafting software) with feet (hooks), while her clumsy hot dog fingers (compound components) rest on her knees (get npm uninstalled).

This isn't to say that other projects are bad—they're very good!

It's just that React Aria is one of the greatest pieces of web-based software ever written, so it's virtually impossible to compete on anything other than first-mover advantage and network effects.

All this to say: for how good React Aria is, there isn't nearly enough good content about using it to build bespoke design systems. My normal human fingers are gonna change that!