dnd-kit vs Muuri
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
A toolkit for building drag and drop interfaces on the web, with adapters for several frameworks.
Open source · MIT
A JavaScript library for building responsive grid layouts that can be sorted, filtered, and dragged.
The short answer
Choose dnd-kit if you need…
- Developers building sortable lists or grids in a React, Vue, Svelte, or Solid app
- Teams that want keyboard and screen reader support built into drag and drop
- Developers who need to customize sensors, collision detection, or animations
- Projects that want a lightweight, MIT-licensed drag and drop dependency
Choose Muuri if you need…
- Front-end developers building card or photo grids that need drag and drop or filtering
- Developers who want custom layouts beyond what CSS alone can do
- Projects that want layout, animation, and interaction in a single library
Side-by-side
| dnd-kit | Muuri | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Library | Library |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 17.8k | 10.9k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Install with a package manager | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last code update | 5 days ago | 2 years ago |
What each one is
dnd-kit
dnd-kit is a set of JavaScript packages that let developers add drag and drop to web pages and apps. It has a framework-agnostic core and a DOM layer, plus thin adapters for React, Vue, Svelte, and SolidJS, with plain JavaScript also supported. It is used to build things like sortable lists, grids, and multi-container layouts.
Muuri
Muuri is a JavaScript layout engine that arranges items in custom grid layouts that resize with the screen. It also adds animation, filtering, sorting, and drag and drop on top of the layout, so developers do not need to combine several separate libraries. The README describes it as a mix of Packery, Masonry, Isotope, and Sortable.
Best for
dnd-kit
- Developers building sortable lists or grids in a React, Vue, Svelte, or Solid app
- Teams that want keyboard and screen reader support built into drag and drop
- Developers who need to customize sensors, collision detection, or animations
- Projects that want a lightweight, MIT-licensed drag and drop dependency
Muuri
- Front-end developers building card or photo grids that need drag and drop or filtering
- Developers who want custom layouts beyond what CSS alone can do
- Projects that want layout, animation, and interaction in a single library
Strengths
dnd-kit
- Supports pointer, mouse, touch, and keyboard input out of the box
- Framework-agnostic core with adapters for several popular frameworks
- Ships with default ARIA attributes and customizable screen reader instructions
Muuri
- Bundles layout, animation, sorting, filtering, and drag and drop in one library
- Supports asynchronous layout calculation in web workers and nested grids
- Installable via npm or a CDN link, with a minimal starting configuration
Not ideal for
dnd-kit
- Non-programmers looking for a ready-made tool; it is a code library that must be integrated into a project
- Projects that only need simple file upload drop zones, since the README focuses on element dragging and does not cover that case
Muuri
- Simple layouts that CSS grid or flexbox can handle, since the README says CSS is often enough and Muuri adds complexity
- People without JavaScript experience, because setup requires writing code and CSS rules
Trade-offs
dnd-kit
- As a toolkit, it requires writing code and understanding its layered package structure
- The README is truncated and points to external docs for full API details, so this entry relies on limited information
Muuri
- Requires specific CSS rules, such as absolute positioning on items and no overflow auto or scroll on the grid element
- Browsers without Web Animations support need an extra polyfill
Getting started
dnd-kit
Clone the repository (contributors)
git clone https://github.com/clauderic/dnd-kitInstall dependencies (monorepo, from README)
bun installFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between dnd-kit and Muuri?
dnd-kit: A toolkit for building drag and drop interfaces on the web, with adapters for several frameworks. Muuri: A JavaScript library for building responsive grid layouts that can be sorted, filtered, and dragged. dnd-kit suits developers building sortable lists or grids in a react, vue, svelte, or solid app, while Muuri suits front-end developers building card or photo grids that need drag and drop or filtering.
Are dnd-kit and Muuri free?
dnd-kit: Free and open source. Muuri: Free and open source.
Is dnd-kit or Muuri more popular?
dnd-kit has more GitHub stars (17.8k) than Muuri (10.9k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to dnd-kit and Muuri?
Other options people compare them with include React DnD, interact.js, Sortable, React-Grid-Layout, Puck.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.