An Aceternity UI alternative for animated React components

beUI vs Aceternity UI

What is Aceternity UI good at?

Aceternity UI describes itself as a React component library for beautiful landing pages. Its catalog leans into visual effects: aurora and beam backgrounds, sparkles, 3D card effects, parallax and scroll showcases, animated text and hero sections. On top of the free components it sells All-Access plans with blocks and complete marketing, SaaS and portfolio templates.

If you are building a marketing site and want a dramatic hero or section ready to paste, that breadth of landing page material is its main strength. Components install with the shadcn CLI from the @aceternity registry, so adding one is a single command.

Where does beUI differ from Aceternity UI?

beUI focuses on the interface inside the product rather than the marketing page around it. Its 107 web components are split across Components (tabs, select, combobox, tooltip, popover, switch, sliders), Charts, AI Agents and Blocks such as a command palette, dynamic island and swap widget.

Every beUI component is free under the MIT license, with no paid tier required. Motion values come from one set of shared tokens, and transform-based movement is gated behind useReducedMotion so people who ask for less motion still get opacity and color feedback. Decorative hover effects such as the tilt card only run on devices that can hover.

• Controlled and uncontrolled APIs on larger components (value, defaultValue, onChange)
• Keyboard and focus handling on overlays, menus and lists
• React Native versions of many components through beUI Native
• An MCP server, llms.txt and agent skill so coding assistants can find and install components

How do I install a beUI component?

beUI is listed in the official shadcn registry directory as @beui, so the install works exactly like an Aceternity UI install. The command below adds the 3D tilt card with its cursor-tracked glare. The source lands in your components folder, ready to edit.

# once per project, if components.json does not exist yet
npx shadcn@latest init

npx shadcn@latest add @beui/tilt-card

Can I use Aceternity UI and beUI together?

Yes. Both copy plain source files into your project, both use Tailwind CSS and Framer Motion, and both install through the shadcn CLI, so they sit side by side without conflict. A common split is Aceternity UI for marketing sections and backgrounds, and beUI for the app: forms, menus, charts and agent chat.

If you are moving from one to the other, there is no runtime package to uninstall. Replace components one at a time, check that each import path points at the file you installed, and remove the old file once nothing imports it.

When is Aceternity UI the better pick?

Choose Aceternity UI when your main job is a visually striking landing page and you want ready-made sections or a full template to start from. Its library of backgrounds, hero sections and paid templates is built for exactly that, and a one-time purchase can save days on a marketing site.

Choose beUI when you need free, accessible primitives for the product itself, charts, AI agent interfaces or React Native parity.