Heroicons vs Tabler: Tailwind Polish or 6,000+ Icons
Compare Heroicons' Tailwind-friendly polish with Tabler's 6,200+ icons, React packages, MIT license, and best use cases.
On this page
Heroicons and Tabler are both MIT-licensed outline icon sets for modern web apps. Where Heroicons trades scale for quality, Tabler trades curation for exhaustive coverage.
The core difference
Heroicons ships about 320 icons (1,200+ SVGs across 4 styles), every one hand-reviewed by the Tailwind CSS team. The set is complete for standard product UI: navigation, actions, status, and form controls. It is intentionally limited to avoid icon quality drift.
Tabler Icons ships 6,200+ icons, making it one of the largest consistent outline icon sets available. Icons cover everything from standard UI to brand logos, medical, food, transportation, and technical symbols. Quality is consistently high across the set.
Navigation & action icons
Niche icons only Tabler covers
Beyond standard UI, Tabler covers categories Heroicons doesn’t: analytics, medical, weather, transportation, programming, and specialized professional icons.
Design consistency
Both icon sets use a 24px grid and rounded line caps. Heroicons outline uses a 1.5px stroke, Tabler a 2px default stroke (adjustable), so Tabler reads slightly heavier. Otherwise the visual DNA is close, you can often tell them apart only by looking closely at corners and proportions.
Heroicons’ smaller set is easier to maintain visually consistent across a focused product. Tabler’s larger set occasionally shows minor visual inconsistencies at the 6,000+ scale, but overall quality is excellent.
React integration
# Heroicons
npm install @heroicons/react
# Tabler
npm install @tabler/icons-react// Heroicons, import from outline/solid paths
import { HomeIcon } from "@heroicons/react/24/outline";
<HomeIcon className="h-5 w-5" />;
// Tabler, all icons in one flat import
import { IconHome } from "@tabler/icons-react";
<IconHome size={20} stroke={1.5} />;Tabler’s flat import is slightly more convenient, no need to choose an outline/solid sub-path. Both are tree-shakeable.
Vue & Svelte support
- Heroicons:
@heroicons/vue(official Vue package) - Tabler: Works via Iconify for Vue/Svelte; no official first-party package
For Vue projects, Heroicons has better official support. For Svelte, both work well through Iconify.
When to choose each
| Use case | Pick |
|---|---|
| Tailwind CSS product, standard UI | Heroicons |
| Dashboard with many niche categories | Tabler |
| Admin panel with programming icons | Tabler |
| Vue project (official package) | Heroicons |
| Maximum icon breadth, MIT license | Tabler |
| Minimal, hand-polished icon set | Heroicons |
Frequently asked questions
Does Tabler look as polished as Heroicons?
Which is bigger, Heroicons or Tabler?
Do both support Vue and React?
Can I switch from Heroicons to Tabler later?
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