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Radix UI vs Restate

Radix UI logo

Radix UI

Web Development

Unstyled, accessible React component primitives

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Restate logo

Restate

Developer Tools

Durable execution engine in Rust with a free tier and low-latency workflows

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Radix UI you write all the styling, so time to a finished interface is much longer than with a styled library; Restate the runtime is under a Business Source Licence rather than an open source licence, so building a competing managed offering on it is prohibited and some procurement functions will reject it on licence grounds alone.
  • They diverge on capability: Radix UI covers Unstyled primitives, Restate covers Durable execution.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Radix UI and Restate actually diverge.

Attributes where Radix UI and Restate differ
AttributeRadix UIRestate
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer month by durable action count
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Web
CategoryWeb DevelopmentDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Radix UI

  • Unstyled primitives
  • Accessibility built in
  • Composable API
  • Controlled or uncontrolled

Only in Restate

  • Durable execution
  • Virtual objects
  • Single binary runtime
  • Multi-language SDKs
  • Workflows and sagas
  • Restate Cloud

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Radix UI

  • Design systems that need correct accessibility without inherited visual opinionsnot Restate
  • Replacing hand-built dropdowns and dialogs that have accessibility bugsnot Restate
  • Teams with a designer whose output should not be constrained by a library’s themenot Restate

Restate

  • Payment or order flows where a crash between two external API calls must not double-charge or lose the ordernot Radix UI
  • AI agent loops that call tools over minutes or hours and must survive a deployment mid-runnot Radix UI
  • Replacing hand-rolled retry, idempotency key and outbox code across a set of microservicesnot Radix UI
  • A small team that wants durable workflows without operating a Temporal cluster and its databasenot Radix UI

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Radix UI

  • You write all the styling, so time to a finished interface is much longer than with a styled library
  • Composable part-based APIs are more verbose than a single component with props
  • Covers primitives rather than complex widgets, so data grids and date pickers come from elsewhere

Restate

  • The runtime is under a Business Source Licence rather than an open source licence, so building a competing managed offering on it is prohibited and some procurement functions will reject it on licence grounds alone.
  • Restate Cloud jumps from a free fifty thousand actions straight to 300 US dollars a month for twenty million, so a workload sitting at a few hundred thousand actions pays enterprise-shaped money for hobby-shaped volume.
  • It is a young project against Temporal’s established base, so hiring engineers who already know it is unrealistic and the answer to most questions is in the docs rather than on Stack Overflow.
  • The programming model requires structuring code around durable handlers and virtual objects, which is a genuine rewrite for existing services rather than a library you add.
  • The single-binary simplicity that makes small deployments cheap also means fewer operational knobs at very large scale than a system designed as separable components.

Pricing, plan by plan

Radix UI

Free
  • Radix UIFree
    • Full functionality
    • Commercial use permitted
    • Community support

Restate

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Fifty thousand durable actions per month
    • No credit card required
    • Community support
  • Starter$300/month
    • Twenty million actions per month
    • Two hundred actions per second, bursting to one thousand
    • Twenty GB storage
  • Pro$1000/month
    • Fifty million actions per month
    • Five hundred actions per second, bursting to two thousand
    • Fifty GB storage
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Negotiated volume
    • Twenty-four seven P0 support
    • 99.99 per cent SLA

Which should you pick?

Choose Radix UI if

  • You need unstyled primitives.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want accessibility built in.
Radix UI review

Choose Restate if

  • You need durable execution.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Web.
  • You also want virtual objects.
Restate review

Questions people ask

Is Radix UI or Restate better?
Neither clearly leads. Radix UI starts at Free and Restate at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Radix UI or Restate?
Radix UI starts at Free and Restate at Free.
Does Radix UI or Restate run on more platforms?
Radix UI runs on Web. Restate runs on Linux, macOS, Web.
Can I use Radix UI for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Radix UI best used for?
Radix UI is most often used for design systems that need correct accessibility without inherited visual opinions, replacing hand-built dropdowns and dialogs that have accessibility bugs, teams with a designer whose output should not be constrained by a library’s theme. Of those, design systems that need correct accessibility without inherited visual opinions and replacing hand-built dropdowns and dialogs that have accessibility bugs are not what Restate is typically brought in for.
What can Radix UI do that Restate cannot?
Radix UI covers Unstyled primitives, Accessibility built in, Composable API, Controlled or uncontrolled. Restate covers Durable execution, Virtual objects, Single binary runtime, Multi-language SDKs.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Radix UI: Is Radix UI free?

Yes, open source under the MIT licence.

Restate: Is Restate open source?

The SDKs are MIT. The runtime is under a Business Source Licence, which permits self-hosting but not offering it as a competing service.

Radix UI: Why use unstyled components?

Because accessibility is the hard part and visual design is the part teams want to own. Radix gives the first and stays out of the second.

Restate: How does it compare with Temporal?

Same problem, different shape: one Rust binary with embedded storage instead of a server plus database plus workers, and lower per-step latency.

Radix UI: What is the relationship with shadcn/ui?

shadcn/ui is built on Radix primitives, adding Tailwind styling and copy-paste distribution on top.

Restate: Is there a free tier?

Yes, fifty thousand durable actions a month on Restate Cloud with no card required.

Restate: Which languages are supported?

TypeScript, Java, Kotlin, Go, Python and Rust.

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