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design14 min

a shelf of useful tabs

2026

i do not live inside these tools every day. i keep them in mind for the moments a project asks for a mockup, a reference, or a shortcut you do not want to invent from scratch.

i am not the person with forty tabs open and a new plugin every tuesday. most of my work still happens in a small set of habits: layout, type, judgment, restraint. the list below is not a workflow. it is a shelf.

these are places worth remembering. not because you should use them all. because someday you will need a mockup in ten minutes, a landing page that already solved the pacing, a transition that feels finished, or a component you do not want to rebuild from zero. when that moment comes, it helps to know where to look.

nothing here replaces taste. it just saves you from pretending you have never seen a good answer before.

mockups

  • https://shots.so/

    the fastest way i know to turn a flat screen into a polished device shot or short motion clip. templates, backgrounds, and export presets without opening a giant PSD stack.

  • https://mockups-design.com/

    a deep free library of studio, packaging, and urban PSD mockups. no signup maze. good when you need a believable print or product scene in minutes.

  • https://jitter.video/templates/devices/

    animated device mockups and social ready motion templates. useful when a still frame is not enough and you still do not want a full after effects session.

  • https://craftwork.design/

    mockups, fonts, illustrations, and framer templates in one marketplace. i open it when i need one specific asset type without hunting five separate sites.

clothing mockups

inspiration

ui libraries

  • https://ui.shadcn.com/

    the baseline most react projects still start from. open code, copy in components, easy to reshape around your own tokens.

  • https://ui.arctis.sh/

    my own component library and docs site. components, blocks, motion, and install commands built the way i actually want to ship product ui.

  • https://magicui.design/

    animated react components that pair well with shadcn. good for landing pages that need motion without writing every effect from scratch.

  • https://heroui.com/

    polished react component set with strong defaults and a full docs surface. handy when you want a more finished visual system out of the box.

  • https://uiverse.io/

    community built html and css ui pieces. messy in a good way. useful for small interaction ideas you can adapt fast.

  • https://www.easyui.pro/

    react and tailwind templates and blocks aimed at landing pages. practical when you need a section fast and would rather edit than invent.

  • https://reactbits.dev/

    large collection of animated react components. strong for marketing sites, backgrounds, and small visual moments.

  • https://smoothui.dev/

    motion heavy shadcn compatible components. dynamic island, siri orb, number flow. the kind of polish people notice in product demos.

  • https://appica.dev/ui

    free open source react components with accessible defaults and ai friendly docs. solid when you want a clean kit without the hype.

  • https://www.great-ui.com/

    accessible react components with distinctive motion recipes. smaller library, but the interactions are considered.

  • https://21st.dev/

    huge registry of react components and blocks with copy paste and agent friendly prompts. good discovery layer when you know the vibe but not the exact piece.

  • https://www.morphicons.com/

    tiny library for morphing svg icons in react, vue, and svelte. one of those details that makes menus and toggles feel finished.

motion & interaction

learning & craft

ai design & prompts

  • https://www.getlayers.ai/

    ai native template and 3d scene library with prompts. useful when you want a cinematic landing direction fast, then edit from source.

  • https://motionsites.ai/

    premium ai website prompts for sections and full pages. strong for hero, pricing, and footer patterns you can paste into your stack.

  • https://videobg.ai/

    large library of animated backgrounds for web. helpful when a static gradient is not enough and you do not want to render video yourself.

  • https://app.arqe.ai/

    ai design tool in the same family of products pushing faster visual exploration. one to watch when you want generated layouts with more control than a generic prompt dump.

  • https://toolfolio.com/

    broad tool discovery platform across design, ai, no code, and ops. good when you are looking for something specific and do not know the name yet.

  • https://www.inspora.design/

    design inspiration and resource discovery with a cleaner browse experience than most aggregator sites.

directories & free tools

backgrounds & assets

the point

you do not need to adopt a stack because someone made a list. you need a few reliable places in memory for the moments when speed, reference, or presentation matter more than pride.

open one tab. take what you need. close it. go back to the actual work.

that is how this stays useful. not as identity. as backup.