From Styled Components to Tailwind CSS: A HackerNoon Migration Story

HackerNoon is transitioning from Styled Components to Tailwind CSS to modernize its frontend, reduce clutter, and improve performance. Tailwind is now live on the homepage, with AI helping refactor one component at a time. The move has made building fun again. This wasn’t a decision we made lightly. Styled Components served us well for a long time. But as we scaled, the trade-offs started becoming clearer—especially around performance, consistency, and long-term maintainability. This post outlines why we originally chose Styled Components, what prompted the move to Tailwind, how the migration is going, and what we’ve learned along the way. If you’re on the fence about making a similar switch, we hope this gives you some insight into our thought process and real-world experience.