Difference between UI-kit and custom UI

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Hi

I don’t understand the exact differences between UI kits and Custom UI, and the related documentation pages are not really helping.

  1. Is the only difference that unambiguously defines the type of UI the existence of a resources property in the manifest file? What about scenarios when using both approaches?
  2. Why in Custom UI do we need to provide an entire directory with built sources, while in a UI kit we have to provide only a single file, for example, index.jsx?
  3. Can I use the @forge/ui library in my Custom UI project?
  4. Are there more subtle differences?
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Hi Jan,

With UI Kit (either UI Kit 1 or UI Kit 2) you are restricted to using the components and hooks provided. It’s a simpler dev experience but there is less flexibility (e.g. no custom styling).

With Custom UI you can use any framework or components you like, but you provide everything yourself which is why you need to have the directory of static resources. It’s more work but then you can do basically anything you like.

No, you can’t use @forge/ui in Custom UI. You can leverage components and design patterns from atlassian.design though.

Cheers,
Adam

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I heard there is a UI kit 2 release planned for March, which adds more components from atlassian.design to UI 2 kit to make it more complete.
I would give UI 2 kot a start, because it is easier to use, and then see if you need more than what UI 2 kit provides.

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