It’s almost 2026: Why Are We Still Arguing About CSS vs Tailwind

Look, I need to be honest with you. I have a complicated relationship with Tailwind CSS. It’s like that friend who’s really good at everything, organised, efficient, always has their life together, but somehow makes you feel like a mess just by existing.

I’m a plain CSS person. Always have been. Give me a .button class and a separate stylesheet, and I'm happy. But here we are in late 2025, almost 2026, and I can't stop thinking about Tailwind. Not because I love it (I don't), but because... well, it has more options. And that's annoying.

The Problem Nobody Talks About
Here’s what they don’t tell you in those “Tailwind vs CSS” think pieces: it’s not really about which one is “better.” It’s about which one makes you want to throw your laptop out the window less often.

For me? Tailwind is stressful. There, I said it.

You know what’s stressful? Looking at this:

<button class="bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-700 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded-lg shadow-md hover:shadow-lg transition duration-300 ease-in-out transform hover:-translate-y-1">
  Click me
</button>

My brain sees that and goes: “That’s not HTML anymore. That’s just CSS with extra steps and a persecution complex.”

But then I write the same thing in plain CSS:

.button {
  background-color: #3b82f6;
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
  padding: 0.5rem 1rem;
  border-radius: 0.5rem;
  box-shadow: 0 4px 6px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
  transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;
}
.button:hover {
  background-color: #2563eb;
  box-shadow: 0 10px 15px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
  transform: translateY(-4px);
}
<button class="button">Click me</button>

And I feel… peaceful. Organized. Like I’m actually writing code instead of playing class-name Scrabble.

So, Why Am I Even Writing This?
Because in 2026, you can’t just pick CSS or Tailwind and call it a day. The landscape is weird now. Good weird, but weird.

Tailwind just dropped v4. It’s faster. It’s cleaner. It still makes my HTML look like someone sneezed utility classes all over it, but I’ll admit, it’s gotten better.

Plain CSS? Also having a renaissance. Container queries are here. CSS nesting is native now. We have cascade layers. The language I fell in love with has been hitting the gym.

And then there are all these new kids on the block: Panda CSS (my favourite!), StyleX, UnoCSS, Lightning CSS. Everyone’s trying to solve the same problem in seventeen different ways.

It’s exhausting.

What Nobody Tells You About Tailwind
The good parts (and yes, they exist):

1. You stop naming things.

Naming is hard. I’ve spent 20 minutes naming a container before. Was it card-wrapper? content-container? main-card-holder-thingy? With Tailwind, that mental tax just... disappears.

1. Your design system is accidentally consistent.

With plain CSS, I’ll use it #3b82f6 in one file and #2563eb In another, and then wonder why my blues look drunk. Tailwind's like: "Here's blue-500. That's the only blue you get. Deal with it." And honestly? It works.

1. The IntelliSense is chef’s kiss.

Type bg- And your editor shows you every background option. It's like autocomplete for styling. My plain CSS ass is jealous.

1. Responsive design is stupidly easy.

<div class="text-sm md:text-base lg:text-lg">
  I'm responsive now, mom!
</div>

Compare that to writing three media queries. Yeah.

The parts that make me want to scream:

1. HTML looks like a crime scene.

Have you seen a Tailwind component after you’ve added dark mode, responsive breakpoints, and hover states? It looks like alphabet soup had a baby with a regular expression.

1. You need a build step.

I just wanted to style a button. Now I’m configuring PostCSS, installing dependencies and praying my code tailwind.config.js doesn't break. This is violence.

1. Debugging is a nightmare.

When something breaks in plain CSS, I open DevTools and see .button { background: red; }. Easy. With Tailwind, I see 47 utility classes fighting for specificity supremacy. Good luck.

1. It’s not actually that reusable.

Everyone says “just make a component!” but then you’re essentially rebuilding CSS with extra steps. If I’m making a React component anyway, why am I doing this to myself?

What Nobody Tells You About Plain CSS
The good parts (and why I can’t quit):

1. It’s just… cleaner.

My HTML looks like HTML. My CSS looks like CSS. Everything makes sense. I can read my code six months later and not need a decoder ring.

1. No build step required.

Link a stylesheet. Done. Deploy. It works. No configuration, compilation, and no “why is my Tailwind not working” Stack Overflow and Chat GPT deep dives at 2 AM.

1. It’s actually more powerful now.

Native CSS in 2025 is wild. Container queries mean I can make components that respond to their container size, not the viewport. That’s witchcraft.

.card {
  container-type: inline-size;
}
@container (min-width: 400px) {
  .card-title {
    font-size: 2rem;
  }
}

1. Custom properties are magic.

:root {
  --color-primary: #3b82f6;
  --spacing-md: 1rem;
}
.button {
  background: var(--color-primary);
  padding: var(--spacing-md);
}

Change one variable, update your entire site. Tailwind wishes it could.

The parts that make me sad:

1. Naming things is still hard.

Is it .btn or .button? .card-header or .header-card I've been doing this for years, and I still don't know.

1. Consistency requires discipline.

Without Tailwind’s constraints, I’ll use margin: 16px in one place and margin: 1rem in another. My spacing system is just vibes.

1. The ecosystem is fragmented.

Tailwind has one way to do things. Plain CSS? Choose your methodology: BEM, SMACSS, OOCSS, ITCSS, or just YOLO and hope for the best.

1. No one’s impressed.

Say you use Tailwind and people nod. Say you write vanilla CSS in 2025, and people look at you like you just said you code on a typewriter. WHAT’S THE FUSS???

So What Should You Actually Use in 2026?
Here’s my honest answer, and I know it’s annoying: it depends.

I know, I know. You wanted a hot take. “Use X, Y is trash.” But here’s the thing, they’re both good. They’re both annoying. They both solve real problems while creating new ones.

Use Tailwind if:

1. You’re building with React/Vue/Svelte (component frameworks love it)
2. You work in a team and need enforced consistency
3. You value speed over HTML cleanliness
4. You’re okay with a build step
5. You don’t want to name things anymore

Use plain CSS if:

1. You’re building simpler sites or static pages
2. You like separation of concerns
3. You hate build steps with a passion
4. You want full control over everything
5. You’re comfortable with modern CSS features

Use both if:

1. You’re pragmatic and not fighting a holy war
2. You use Tailwind for quick stuff, CSS for complex animations
3. You like having options
4. The Real 2026 Move

Want my actual take?

Here it is:

Learn modern CSS first. For real. Container queries, nesting, cascade layers :has(), custom properties, this stuff is powerful and it's not going anywhere. Tailwind can disappear tomorrow (it won't, but hypothetically). CSS won't.

Then pick up Tailwind. Not because you have to, but because sometimes it’s just faster. Use it for prototyping. Use it for side projects. Use it when you don’t want to think.

Mix them when it makes sense. Use Tailwind utilities for spacing and colours. Use plain CSS for complex layouts and animations. Nobody’s giving out purity awards.

The Stuff That’s Actually Exciting
Forget the CSS vs Tailwind debate for a second. Here’s what’s actually cool in 2026:

Container queries are changing how we think about responsive design. We’re not designing for screen sizes anymore; we’re designing for component sizes.

CSS nesting is native now. No preprocessor needed. It just works.

Cascade layers let you control specificity without fighting !important wars.

View transitions API makes page transitions smooth without JavaScript.

This is the golden age of CSS, whether you write it plain or use Tailwind to generate it.

My Controversial Take
Tailwind’s biggest contribution isn’t utility classes or even the design system. It’s that it made developers care about design again.

Before Tailwind, developers would slap Bootstrap on everything and call it a day. Tailwind made it fun to style things. Made it feel like you were actually designing, not just applying someone else’s theme.

And that’s valuable, even if the HTML makes my eyes bleed sometimes.

What I’m Actually Using

You want to know what I reach for these days?

For side projects: Plain CSS with modern features. It’s therapeutic.

For client work: Tailwind, because clients want things fast and I’m not dying on this hill.

For complex stuff: A mix. Tailwind for the basics, custom CSS for the interesting parts.

For 2026: I’m watching Panda CSS and UnoCSS. They might be the answer to “what if Tailwind, but less stressful?”

The Bottom Line
CSS and Tailwind are both fine. They’re both annoying. They both get the job done.

Pick what makes you happy. Life’s too short to have anxiety about styling a button.

But if anyone asks me at a conference? I’m team plain CSS. Not because it’s better. Just because I’m stubborn and I like my HTML clean.

Also,
className="flex items-center justify-center" still feels like cheating, and nobody can convince me otherwise.

What are you using in 2026? Drop your hot takes in the comments. Bonus points if you can defend your choice without starting a holy war.

P.S. If you’re still using inline styles in 2026, we need to talk. Seriously.

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Comments

[Ingo Steinke, web developer]

I used to criticize Tailwind, but it's definitely not one of the tools that make me want to throw my laptop out of the window. There are many others, including inaccurate search results and unhelpful AI suggestions to do that in 2026. Concerning the oft-cited inline-style-like examples with tons of class names, we don't need to do that. Tailwind has its @apply rule, a global.css, custom properties, and we can still use many of its built-ins, which are not better or worse than Bootstrap. I still don't get why we're discussing all of this pro and con functional CSS these days instead of when Bootstrap arrived.

Thanks for your post though. I always love to see that there are other developers who still think in CSS and have to look up the inconsistent class names for Tailwind. CSS is great, but it's also inconsistent, and even without its historic pitfalls, descriptive programming languages are hard to understand and work with for many people, so I'd prefer Tailwind in a team setup making it easier for onboarding coworkers, while preferring PostCSS + CSS + Stylelint in my own personal projects.

[Laurina Ayarah]

You make some really solid points! I'll admit I didn't cover @apply in the article - you're right that it helps with the class-name explosion. And the Bootstrap comparison is spot-on... we had utility classes then too.
The team vs personal project split makes a lot of sense. When you use Tailwind with teams, do people actually use @apply and component extraction, or do most lean into the utility-first approach?
Thanks for the thoughtful response!

[Nenad Mitrovic]

Oddly enough, it’s 2026 and I’m still interrupting casual hallway chats about Tailwind, only to jump in with: ‘How do you actually scale this? Debug it? Has anyone invented a way to kill all those classes yet?’ 😎

Thanks for the article, it totally made my day!

[Laurina Ayarah]

Thanks for reading...I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[Sylwia Laskowska]

Haha, maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but hearing people deny how great Tailwind is feels totally new to me! Personally, I love using it for prototyping, but in production I still prefer the classic approach.

[Laurina Ayarah]

Thanks for reading, Sylwia!🙌 Honestly, we're probably more aligned than it seems. Your Tailwind-for-prototyping approach is super smart. Do you usually rewrite those classes into custom CSS for production, or just start over? I love hearing how different devs handle the transition

[Sylwia Laskowska]

Ah, I'm just treating prototyping as my little side hobby 😄 The prototypes are later developed by other teams (or abandoned 😅), so I usually have no idea what happens to them afterward!

[Laurina Ayarah]

ohhh, thats cool 😅

[Franklin Suca]

For me, bootrap 5 is enough for me.

[Laurina Ayarah]

If Bootstrap's working for you, no reason to switch then👍