Hoverlab vs 21st.dev
Both of these are catalogs of ready-made interface code, and the interesting differences are not the component counts. They are what each one gives away, what each one charges for, and what you are actually buying when you pay.
21st.dev’s figures below were read from their own site on 10 September 2026. Ours are computed from the catalog at build time. Prices move; go and check theirs.
What 21st.dev does better than we do
Twelve thousand components and a subscription funding the whole thing. Recurring revenue buys a roadmap that one-time licences do not.
This is the first thing on the page on purpose. You would have found it out anyway, and a comparison where the author wins every row is an advertisement — which readers of this particular kind of page recognise faster than most.
Side by side
| Row | Hoverlab | 21st.dev |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $79 one-time | $6 per month |
| Price ladder | $79 Pro / $299 Studio / $999 Enterprise, one-time, plus a per-seat Team plan | $6/mo Builder, $15/mo Builder+AI, $7.50 per seat for teams — all billed yearly |
| What ships | 1,126 effects, 307 blocks, 126 pages, 32 templates | 12,000+ crafted React components, templates and shadcn themes, MCP and CLI |
| Free tier | The whole catalog — readable, copyable and installable, with no account. Plus the CLI, the MCP server and an unauthenticated HTTP API. | No free plan; 5 Design Bug Bot reviews in the first 7 days |
| Design files | Importable Figma frames and Dev Mode pairing — frames, not a component library | No |
| Agent access | MCP server, packaged agent skills, a public API and a shadcn registry. No key, no metering. | MCP access is a paid feature — one of only two vendors charging |
| What is behind the wall | The licence — everything is readable and copyable, you buy the right to ship | Agent access — the components are cheap, the MCP server is the subscription |
The difference that is not a number
Every catalog in this market withholds something until you pay, and this is where the two businesses actually diverge.
Hoverlab
The licence — everything is readable and copyable, you buy the right to ship
Everything is readable, copyable and installable before you pay anything. What Pro buys is the commercial licence.
21st.dev
Agent access — the components are cheap, the MCP server is the subscription
Read as of 10 September 2026. Check it yourself.
Decide for yourself
You do not have to take any of this on trust — the catalog is open without an account, so the fastest way to settle it is to install one thing from each and read the code.