Why Onlook
Great products are built
when designers ship code
Onlook is different. Designers can express themselves in an entirely new medium: their real codebase. Working there is effortless, and designers now have the tools to empower entire teams to ship excellent products and experiences.
How Onlook compares
No other tool gives designers this much power on the real product. Every alternative makes you trade away the code, the collaboration, the design system, or the craft.
Designers and engineers who maintain a design system and care about craft
Anyone who wants a quick prototype from a prompt
Your real components, on a canvas
A prompt that generates an isolated prototype, not-attached to the codebase
Your codebase, uploaded via your preferred code hosting provider
A design file, a proprietary format, isolated html/css/js, or a local artifact that is not attached to the codebase
Your framework, your styling system, your conventions. Next.js, Vite, Remix, Astro, Tailwind, vanilla CSS, all supported.
Locked into the tool’s framework and the tool’s styling system. Both come pre-chosen, both are fixed.
The Storybook your team already maintains
A new copy of the library you build inside the tool, or a synthesized view of your code
Compose on an infinite canvas of real components, within your own defined system that consistently outputs excellent design.
Type a prompt and accept the first result from a raw model query
On the canvas, editing the real components alongside designers
Outside the codebase, generating detached artifacts you have to wrangle into your codebase later
Your real React components — no proprietary file format
A proprietary design file or platform-locked artifact
Your real design tokens, defined in your code
A parallel design system that drifts from your production code
A read-write MCP across your canvas, components, tokens, and code.
Most tools ship a shallow MCP or none at all.
A configurable, AI-native design harness. Layer in your team’s design context and persistent memory for highly customizable AI output
Single-mode, one-dimensional prompting. What you type is what you get, with no way to layer your team’s craft into the AI
| Factor | Alternatives | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it’s for | Designers and engineers who maintain a design system and care about craft | Anyone who wants a quick prototype from a prompt |
| Starting point | Your real components, on a canvas | A prompt that generates an isolated prototype, not-attached to the codebase |
| Source of truth | Your codebase, uploaded via your preferred code hosting provider | A design file, a proprietary format, isolated html/css/js, or a local artifact that is not attached to the codebase |
| Stack | Your framework, your styling system, your conventions. Next.js, Vite, Remix, Astro, Tailwind, vanilla CSS, all supported. | Locked into the tool’s framework and the tool’s styling system. Both come pre-chosen, both are fixed. |
| Component library | The Storybook your team already maintains | A new copy of the library you build inside the tool, or a synthesized view of your code |
| How designers work | Compose on an infinite canvas of real components, within your own defined system that consistently outputs excellent design. | Type a prompt and accept the first result from a raw model query |
| Where AI lives | On the canvas, editing the real components alongside designers | Outside the codebase, generating detached artifacts you have to wrangle into your codebase later |
| Source format | Your real React components — no proprietary file format | A proprietary design file or platform-locked artifact |
| Design system | Your real design tokens, defined in your code | A parallel design system that drifts from your production code |
| MCP | A read-write MCP across your canvas, components, tokens, and code. | Most tools ship a shallow MCP or none at all. |
| Design harness | A configurable, AI-native design harness. Layer in your team’s design context and persistent memory for highly customizable AI output | Single-mode, one-dimensional prompting. What you type is what you get, with no way to layer your team’s craft into the AI |
One source of truth
Every visual change you make produces actual code in actual files. No parallel design system, no drift between the mockup and the live product. The thing on the canvas is the thing in production.
No new file format
Onlook reads the React components in your repo as-is. There is no proprietary format to learn, no migration to manage, no export step. If you ever outgrow Onlook, the code is already yours.
AI-native
AI is built into every interaction on the canvas — generate, restyle, and restructure with natural language while keeping the precision of a visual editor. The intelligence lives where the design happens.
For the love of the craft
For the art kids who got told they cared too much.
For the ones who chase a feeling, not a brief.
For the makers who treat color like a material, and type like a tool.
For the people who refuse to ship “close enough.”
We built Onlook for you.