Tailwind writes styles as utility classes in your HTML. Half the industry loves it, half hates it — here's the useful version of that debate.
The same card, twice
<!-- Tailwind -->
<div class="bg-white rounded-xl shadow-md p-6 hover:shadow-lg transition">
<!-- Plain CSS -->
<div class="card"> + .card { background:#fff; border-radius:12px; ... }Why teams adopt it
- No naming things, no orphaned CSS files, no specificity wars
- Design constraints built in (spacing/color scales) — consistent UIs by default
- Co-located: see an element's full styling where it lives
Why CSS-first still wins for learning
Tailwind classes ARE CSS properties: flex items-center is meaningless until you understand flexbox. Learn CSS → Tailwind takes a weekend. Learn only Tailwind → you're lost the moment you leave it (interviews test CSS, not class names).
The path
- Plain CSS until you can build layouts confidently (our course)
- Then Tailwind on a React project — it genuinely is faster for products