12 Best shadcn/ui Projects and Examples to Learn From (2026)

Building with shadcn/ui is one thing. Knowing what's possible with it is another.

The ecosystem has grown well past individual components. Real production apps, SaaS starters with auth and billing, open source tools with tens of thousands of stars, block libraries with over a thousand pre-built sections, all of it built on shadcn/ui. The variety makes it hard to know where to look first.

Below are 12 shadcn/ui projects worth studying, broken into real apps, SaaS starter kits, block libraries, and templates. Each one shows a different dimension of what the library can do at scale.

Real Apps Built with shadcn/ui

These are production applications you can explore, fork, or contribute to. Seeing shadcn/ui inside a real codebase teaches you patterns that documentation doesn't.

1. Taxonomy: shadcn's Own Reference App

Taxonomy is the first place to look when learning shadcn/ui in a real project context. Built by the creator of shadcn/ui, it's a complete Next.js application that shows how the pieces fit together: authentication, dashboards, content management, and folder structure, in a production-like setup rather than isolated code snippets.

It uses Next.js App Router, NextAuth.js for authentication, and Prisma with PostgreSQL. The folder structure alone is worth studying: it models how to organize a shadcn/ui project at scale. If you've used the component docs and want to see how those components live inside a real app, start here.

• Stack: Next.js, shadcn/ui, NextAuth.js, Prisma, PostgreSQL
• Best for: Learning shadcn/ui project structure and App Router patterns

2. Dub.co: Open Source Link Management

Dub.co is one of the most prominent open source projects built on shadcn/ui. It's a link management platform with analytics dashboards, custom domains, and team workspaces. The codebase is a practical example of shadcn/ui inside a multi-tenant SaaS with real users.

What makes Dub.co worth studying is its scale. It handles authentication, data tables, modal flows, and complex dashboard layouts, all the patterns you'll need in a production SaaS, built consistently with shadcn/ui components. The GitHub repository has detailed documentation and an active contributor community.

• Stack: Next.js, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS, Prisma
• Best for: Seeing shadcn/ui inside a production multi-tenant SaaS

3. Cal.com: Open Source Scheduling

Cal.com is an open source alternative to Calendly with 35,000+ GitHub stars. The UI layer uses shadcn/ui across booking pages, availability settings, team dashboards, and integrations. It's one of the largest open source codebases built on shadcn/ui in production.

For developers building anything with complex scheduling, form flows, or multi-step user journeys, Cal.com's codebase shows how shadcn/ui holds up at enterprise scale. The project is actively maintained by a full team, so the code quality and patterns are production-grade.

• Stack: Next.js, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS, tRPC, Prisma
• Best for: Complex multi-step UI patterns, enterprise-scale shadcn/ui usage

SaaS Starter Kits

These bundle shadcn/ui with authentication, billing, and database setup, giving you a production-ready foundation for a SaaS product without the boilerplate.

4. MakerKit: SaaS Starter with Supabase

MakerKit is a full-featured SaaS starter kit built with Next.js, shadcn/ui, and Supabase. Authentication, subscription management, team accounts, dashboards, and forms come pre-built. The UI layer is built entirely on shadcn/ui, so the design system is consistent out of the box.

What separates MakerKit from simpler starters is the production-readiness of its auth and billing flows. Instead of wiring together Stripe, Supabase Auth, and your UI from scratch, you get a cohesive setup that developers report shipping in days instead of weeks. For a lighter starting point before committing to a full starter kit, the free shadcn templates on shadcndeck cover SaaS landing pages built on the same stack.

• Stack: Next.js, shadcn/ui, Supabase, Stripe
• Pricing: Paid ($299+)
• Best for: Founders building SaaS products who want to skip auth and billing setup

5. Zippy Starter: Lightweight Next.js Boilerplate

Zippy Starter targets developers building content-driven sites, blogs, portfolios, and documentation rather than full SaaS applications. It comes with MDX support, a shadcn/ui-based component system, SEO setup, and light/dark mode out of the box.

The built-in shadcn theme generator integration lets you configure colors and design tokens without writing configuration manually. For a standalone theming tool, the shadcn theme generator on shadcndeck covers the same workflow without needing a full boilerplate setup.

• Stack: Next.js, shadcn/ui, ContentLayer, MDX
• Pricing: Free
• Best for: Blogs, portfolios, documentation sites, lightweight landing pages

Block Libraries

Block libraries build on top of shadcn/ui to ship pre-composed page sections: hero areas, pricing tables, testimonials, and dashboards, ready to copy and customize.

6. Shadcnblocks: 1,350+ Production-Ready Blocks

Shadcnblocks is the largest block library in the shadcn/ui ecosystem. Over 1,350 blocks covering marketing pages, dashboard shells, e-commerce sections, and SaaS-specific layouts, all installable via the shadcn CLI registry.

The scale is the differentiator. Most block libraries cover standard marketing sections. Shadcnblocks covers those and goes into complex patterns: multi-column dashboards, data table layouts, authentication flows, and admin panel shells. It recently added automatic theme token support, meaning blocks adapt to your project's color system without manual adjustment.

• Stack: Next.js, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS
• Pricing: Freemium. Core blocks free, premium templates paid
• Best for: Teams that need breadth: marketing pages and dashboard UI in one place

7. Origin UI: 500+ SaaS Components

Origin UI focuses on SaaS-specific components rather than general marketing blocks. Dashboards, onboarding flows, billing pages, settings pages, and data tables. The components are built for the screens that SaaS products actually need, not just landing pages.

The design is clean and consistent with shadcn/ui's visual language. All 500+ components are customizable and extend naturally from the shadcn/ui base. For developers who want full shadcn/ui-based landing page templates rather than individual components, shadcndeck templates covers complete SaaS page layouts built on the same stack.

• Stack: React, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS
• Pricing: Freemium
• Best for: SaaS dashboards, onboarding flows, and product-specific UI patterns

8. Aceternity UI: Animated Components

Aceternity UI extends the shadcn/ui ecosystem with animated, interactive components: bento grids, spotlight effects, parallax cards, and animated backgrounds. These aren't available in the core library, which keeps the base intentionally minimal.

The components blend shadcn/ui's clean aesthetic with Framer Motion animations. For SaaS founders building marketing pages that need more visual personality than the default shadcn/ui style, Aceternity covers the gap without requiring a separate design system.

• Stack: React, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS, Framer Motion
• Pricing: Freemium
• Best for: Marketing pages, landing pages, product showcases that need animation

9. Magic UI: Components for Marketing Pages

Magic UI ships 150+ animated components and effects, including marquees, globes, dock bars, and beam patterns, designed for modern marketing pages. It integrates directly with the shadcn CLI registry, so installation matches the same workflow as core shadcn/ui components.

The focus is narrower than Shadcnblocks but deeper on the effects layer. If you're building a landing page and need visual elements that go beyond shadcn/ui's defaults without writing custom animations, Magic UI covers the gap efficiently.

• Stack: React, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS, Framer Motion
• Pricing: Freemium. Core components free, Pro at $199 one-time
• Best for: Marketing pages and landing pages that need polished visual effects

Templates and Dashboards

10. shadcn-admin: Open Source Admin Dashboard

shadcn-admin is the most widely referenced open source admin dashboard built with shadcn/ui. It includes navigation menus, data tables, modals, forms, and responsive layouts, built with best practices in component structure and clean, modular code.

For developers building internal tools, analytics dashboards, or admin panels, this is a cleaner starting point than the full-stack SaaS starters. You get the UI layer without the auth and billing overhead. Lightweight, extensible, and actively maintained.

• Stack: React, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS, Vite
• Pricing: Free, MIT licensed
• Best for: Internal tools, admin panels, analytics dashboards

11. Form Builder: Interactive Open Source Tool

The shadcn form builder demonstrates one of the less-obvious use cases: building dynamic, interactive tools entirely with shadcn/ui components. It's a drag-and-drop form builder where users create custom forms in the browser, all styled and composed with shadcn/ui.

The project is valuable as a learning resource because it shows shadcn/ui handling state management, drag-and-drop logic, and interactive form composition, not just static layouts. For deeper component-level references, shadcn accordion, shadcn tabs, and shadcn select cover the form-adjacent components in detail.

• Stack: React, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS
• Pricing: Free, open source
• Best for: Learning advanced shadcn/ui composition and interactive UI patterns

12. ShadcnHub: Community Gallery

ShadcnHub is a community-driven gallery of shadcn/ui examples: dashboards, landing pages, component combinations, and layout patterns contributed by developers. It works as a browsable inspiration resource rather than a copy-paste block library.

The value is variety. The official shadcn/ui docs show you what components look like in isolation. ShadcnHub shows how developers combine them in real-world layouts. For developers who know what they want to build but need to see how it looks before writing code, it's a useful reference before starting a project.

• Stack: React, shadcn/ui, Tailwind CSS
• Pricing: Free
• Best for: Design inspiration, browsing real-world shadcn/ui layouts

How to Use This List

Learning the fundamentals: Start with Taxonomy. It's the creator's reference implementation and shows shadcn/ui inside a real Next.js project structure.

Building a SaaS: MakerKit if you want auth and billing pre-wired. For landing pages specifically, shadcndeck templates covers SaaS UI patterns built on shadcn/ui without the full-stack overhead.

Need page sections fast: Shadcnblocks for breadth, Origin UI for SaaS-specific components, Aceternity UI or Magic UI for animated marketing pages.

Building a dashboard or internal tool: shadcn-admin as a starting point. Dub.co or Cal.com as references for how shadcn/ui scales in production.

Related Posts

More shadcn/ui resources on shadcndeck:

• The Rise of shadcn/ui - How a side project became the default React UI stack
• 17 Best React UI Libraries in 2026 - How shadcn/ui compares to MUI, Ant Design, Mantine, and the ecosystem
• Shadcn Chat UI Guide - Build modern chat interfaces with message bubbles and typing indicators
• Shadcn Avatar Component Guide - Status badges, avatar groups, and custom sizing
• Shadcn Resizable Sidebar Guide - Build collapsible and resizable layouts for dashboards
• Free Shadcn Templates - 15 production-ready shadcn/ui templates reviewed