Carbon Design System vs Lightning Design System
Carbon Design System
carbondesignsystem.com
Lightning Design System
lightningdesignsystem.comSide by side
| Figure | Carbon Design System | Lightning Design System |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · UI Kit Libraries | 8.4 (#3) | 6.8 (#26) |
| Accessibility | IBM products using Carbon must meet WCAG AA accessibility standards, and the component checklist requires specified color contrast and documented focus flow. | The accessibility guidance recommends reviewing applications before release for WCAG 2.1 AA conformance. |
| Components | Carbon components are designed and coded to solve specific UI problems and work together as parts of a larger system. | The development guide recommends Lightning base components first, then component blueprints, then custom components when needed. |
| Integrations | The ecosystem includes Carbon for Cloud, Carbon for AEM, Carbon for IBMer Experience, Carbon for Salesforce, and Carbon React Native. | The Figma kits page lists UI libraries and pattern kits, including an SLDS 2 web components library and an agentic experience design library. |
| Purpose | Carbon provides reusable assets to help teams build consistent digital experiences faster. | SLDS 2 provides reusable design tools and development guidance for building consistent Salesforce interfaces. |
Plans
In their own words
Carbon Design System
Carbon Design System is IBM’s open-source design system for digital products, shaped by the IBM Design Language. Carbon Core provides foundations, components, patterns, code, and guidance for teams building consistent digital experiences. Carbon for Products adds product-oriented components, styling, and guidance, with components built using React. The wider ecosystem includes Carbon for AI guidelines and reusable elements, Carbon Charts, and integrations such as Carbon for Cloud, Carbon for AEM, and Carbon React Native. Design kits maintained in Figma receive library updates automatically. Carbon MCP lets AI applications or agents query colors, typography, component details, and usage guidance. Web components are available as ES modules or through a CDN and can be used with frameworks such as Angular or Ember. Developer resources include GitHub repositories, Storybooks, tutorials, Carbon Devtools, a color-contrast checker, and UI Builder. The builder can export presentation images, demo apps, or frontend code. Components follow accessibility checks based on IBM’s checklist. Carbon is free to use and contribute to, with no paid tiers stated. Its patterns cannot include code for every possible implementation.
Lightning Design System
Lightning Design System has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.