GitHub Primer vs UI Prep Design System
GitHub Primer
primer.styleUI Prep Design System
uiprep.comSide by side
| Figure | GitHub Primer | UI Prep Design System |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · UI Kit Libraries | 8.3 (#4) | 7.5 (#18) |
| Product | Primer is GitHub’s design system, with guidelines, principles, and patterns for designing and building UI at GitHub. | UI Prep is a design system UI kit for Figma intended to help users design quickly and confidently. |
Plans
UI Prep Design System
- Free DemoFree
- Individual Plan$99, paid once
- Team plan$199, paid once
In their own words
GitHub Primer
GitHub Primer is a free, open-source design system for designing and building GitHub interfaces. Its guidance covers product UI components, patterns, and design tokens for color, spacing, and typography. Primer Brand addresses marketing websites and other digital experiences. React documentation explains theming, recommended practices, and component extension. Primer also provides accessibility guidance and tools, along with Octicons, GitHub’s scalable icon set. Product UI documentation includes an MCP server page. Component status is identified as experimental, ready, or deprecated; ready components are described as mature with long-term support expected. Primer Web and Primer Primitives are available through the Primer Figma Community page, while GitHub’s Figma organization is limited to GitHub team members. The Primer Mobile Figma library is internal only. GitHub employees alone can contribute to Primer Web because of Figma’s open-source file handling. GitHub’s Design Infrastructure and Design Engineering teams maintain the CSS framework, documentation, tools, libraries, and component libraries.
UI Prep Design System
UI Prep Design System is a Figma kit for building interfaces with reusable components, variables, and styles. Figma Variables organize primitive and semantic colors, spacing, sizing, and corner radius. One-click light and dark modes support a multi-brand setup. Components use Auto Layout, variants, properties, exposed nested instances, and interactive prototyping features. The maker says the kit meets WCAG 2.1 contrast ratios and uses an 8pt base unit. Primitive color variables can update semantic variables; number variables change component sizing and spacing; text styles can be updated with the Batch Styler plugin. The Free Demo costs nothing. Individual costs $99, paid once, and Team costs $199, paid once. A free Figma account is sufficient, but using the kit as a Figma library requires Team Library on a paid Figma plan. The license permits customized commercial, client, and personal projects.