shadimage

What is shadimage?

shadimage is an independent directory and search engine for the shadcn/ui ecosystem. It indexes component libraries, block collections, template kits and related resources built on shadcn/ui and Tailwind CSS. The site describes itself as covering both free and paid products, with a paid-only filter available for visitors who want commercial options. Its landing page states that it hand-picks the paid component libraries, templates, dashboard kits and SaaS boilerplates in the shadcn ecosystem.

The catalog is organised into six categories. As listed on the homepage, these are Blocks & Components (402), Website Templates (176), Dashboard Kits (11), SaaS Boilerplates (6), Figma & Design Kits (10) and Site Builders (6) — 611 products in total, described as regularly updated.

How shadimage works

The about page explains the data pipeline. Everything in the catalog is collected from public sources: the libraries' own shadcn-compatible registries (/r/*.json), public sitemaps and public aggregator indexes. Two rules are stated. First, "metadata, not code": ingestion collects names, titles, descriptions, categories, dependencies and links, while component source code is fetched only when a user opens a component page or asks an agent for it — once, on demand, with a short-lived cache. Second, "facts in, original copy out": overviews are written from observed numbers such as item counts, type mix and dependency profile, rather than republishing vendor marketing text.

Search runs on full-text indexes over the catalog, using trigram matching with ranked results. Semantic tags — where a piece goes in a page, how it looks, what it does — are layered on top as filters. Queries that return nothing useful are logged as data-quality tasks.

For AI coding agents, an MCP server is exposed at /api/mcp with four tools: search_components, get_component, compare_components and get_library. Human developers browse per-library component inventories at /product/<library> and search across all of them at /search.

Main features

• Category-based browsing across six product types, with a paid-only filter.
• Per-library component inventories that show dependencies, bundle weight and intended use.
• Cross-catalog search with trigram matching plus semantic tag filters.
• An MCP server (/api/mcp) exposing search_components, get_component, compare_components and get_library.
• Featured listings that state each product's pricing model — for example "License per tier" for ShadcnBlocks; "Free + Pro" for Magic UI, Aceternity UI, Preline UI, Efferd, Once UI and Flowbite; "Pro subscription" for 21st.dev; "Per-license pricing" for SatisUI and Componentry; "One-time, all-access" for Tailwind Plus; an "All-access pass" for Cruip; and "Per-template license" for ShadcnStudio.
• Gated sources are marked as such rather than hidden.

Pricing

The pages reviewed do not state a price for using shadimage itself; the directory is presented as free to browse, with an email contact (hello@shadimage.com) for questions, corrections and indexing requests. What the catalog does publish is the pricing model of each listed product, and individual listings show price figures. Examples on the homepage include Cult UI at 179, Pro Motion Primitives at 149, Skiper UI at 129, Myna UI at 99 and Shadcraft at 499, plus template listings such as Achromatic at 180 and Aspect, Charter and Craft at 79. The pages do not specify a currency for these figures.

Common use cases

• Comparing paid shadcn/ui libraries before purchasing a licence.
• Finding blocks, sections or animated components for a React project already using shadcn/ui and Tailwind CSS.
• Sourcing landing-page, dashboard or SaaS-boilerplate templates.
• Locating Figma and design kits that match a component library.
• Letting an AI coding agent search, inspect and compare components via MCP before installing one.
• Checking a component's dependencies and bundle weight before committing to it.

Limitations

The about page is explicit about gaps in the data. "Not indexed yet" is different from "doesn't exist", so absence from the catalog is not proof that a resource is unavailable. A component marked gated means the vendor requires a licence, and the install command will not work without one. Libraries with partial registries or stale descriptions are flagged on the page rather than corrected silently. Because ingestion captures metadata rather than code, component source is retrieved only on demand. The catalog's scope is the shadcn/ui ecosystem, so resources outside it are out of scope. The site states its content was last updated 2026-09-24, and describes the catalog as regularly updated rather than real-time.

Summary

shadimage is a directory and search engine for the shadcn/ui ecosystem, covering 611 products across six categories and going one level deeper for libraries that publish a public registry. It offers category browsing, ranked full-text search, per-library component inventories and an MCP server for agents, under a stated policy of honest pricing labels, marked gated sources and disclosed data limits.