Aligning pricing cards the hard way

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Today was a deep dive into a seemingly simple UI bug that turned into a lesson in CSS Grid, Flexbox behavior, and the importance of reading your own design system.

The client reported two issues on their subscription pricing page: buttons weren't aligning across cards, and payment option text was getting cut off in the dropdown. What looked like quick fixes exposed fundamental layout problems and some questionable UX decisions.

The Button Alignment Problem

Three pricing cards displayed side-by-side - 6 months, 12 months, and a custom plan option. The "Uppgradera" (upgrade) buttons should align horizontally, but they didn't. The 12-month card had a "Spara 23%" (Save 23%) badge that pushed everything down, leaving the button higher than the 6-month card's button.

The cards used CSS Grid with grid-cols-3, which should make all items in a row equal height. Each card had h-full to fill its grid cell. Inside each card was a flex container with flex-col to stack content vertically. The button was the last flex child.

First attempt: add mt-auto to the button to push it to the bottom. Didn't work.

Second attempt: wrap the button in a div with mt-auto. Still didn't work.

The issue? The card had flex-grow in its classes. This was copied from the custom plan card but didn't belong on grid items. Grid items don't need flex-grow - the grid handles sizing. Removing it didn't help immediately, but it was still wrong.

The real fix came from making the cards structurally identical. The custom plan card (which worked correctly) used flex flex-grow flex-col and its button had mt-auto. The pricing cards used flex md:flex-col flex-wrap md:flex-nowrap - responsive flex direction switching.

This complexity existed because on mobile, the title and price were displayed side-by-side (1/3 and 2/3 width), then wrapped. On desktop, everything stacked vertically. This responsive behavior broke mt-auto because the flex properties changed across breakpoints.

The solution: simplify to always use flex-col, matching the custom card. Remove responsive switching. Update child widths from w-1/3 md:w-full to just w-full. Now all cards had identical structure:

className="flex flex-grow flex-col items-center border gap-4 p-5 ..."

With matching structure and mt-auto on the button wrapper, the buttons aligned perfectly. The lesson: complex responsive flex layouts break when you need precise cross-component alignment. Consistency beats cleverness.

The Dropdown Text Truncation

The billing frequency dropdown showed options like "Månadsvis betalning — 1 295 SEK" (monthly payment). The text was getting cut off: "Månadsvis betalning — 1 295 S". The "EK" was wrapping or truncating.

The fix should have been simple: remove "SEK" from the option text since it's redundant with the price display above. But that wasn't what the client wanted.

They wanted to replace the entire dropdown with toggle cards showing both options simultaneously. Better UX - users can see both payment methods without opening a dropdown. Each option becomes a clickable card with a radio button.

The implementation replaced a native <select> with a flex column of label elements containing radio inputs. Each card shows the payment type on the left and the amount on the right:

{planBillingOptions.map(option => (
  <label className={clsx(
    'flex items-center justify-between p-3 border rounded-lg cursor-pointer',
    {
      'border-gray-700 bg-layer-below': selectedBillingId === option.id,
      'border-gray-500 hover:border-gray-700': selectedBillingId !== option.id,
    }
  )}>
    <div className="flex items-center gap-3">
      <input type="radio" ... />
      <span className="tx-xs">
        {option.months === 1
          ? t('pro.plans.optionMonthly')
          : t('pro.plans.optionFull')}
      </span>
    </div>
    <div className="flex flex-col items-end">
      <span className="tx-s font-[600]">{format(option.amount)}</span>
      <span className="tx-xs"> kr{option.months === 1 && '/mån'}</span>
    </div>
  </label>
))}

The amount formatting split into two spans - the number in larger text, the currency/frequency in smaller text. This created visual hierarchy: "1 295" prominent, "kr/mån" subtle.

For the full payment option, a third line was added: "på första fakturan" (on first invoice). This clarifies when the charge happens. The text needed to be small (text-[10px]), dark enough for contrast (text-gray-1100), and prevented from wrapping (whitespace-nowrap).

The Color Matching Saga

The client requested the selected card background match "the gray in the sidebar." I used bg-gray-200. Wrong gray. I tried bg-gray-300. Still wrong.

Finally: "ANALYZE THE FUCKING SIDEBAR."

Fair. I read the sidebar component. It used bg-layer-main. I checked the theme definition. layer-main mapped to gray-200 which was #FAFAFD. But standard Tailwind's gray-200 is different from their custom design system's gray-200.

I changed the selected card background to bg-layer-main. Still wrong - the client wanted the hover state, not the default background.

Reading the sidebar nav link styles:

.nav-link {
  @apply hover:bg-layer-below ...
}
 
.nav-link.active {
  @apply bg-layer-below ...
}

The hover and active states use bg-layer-below. This maps to gray-400 which is #EDEFF2. Changed the selected card to bg-layer-below. Success.

The lesson: design systems exist for a reason. Read them. Don't assume gray-200 means what you think it means.

The Badge Spacing Fix

The "Spara 23%" badge only appeared on the 12-month plan. This caused the earlier button misalignment - cards had different content heights. But even after fixing the button alignment, the "BETALNINGSINTERVALL" sections weren't horizontally aligned.

The 6-month card had:

Price
"PER MÅNAD" text
(empty space)
BETALNINGSINTERVALL

The 12-month card had:

Price
"PER MÅNAD" text
"Spara 23%" badge
BETALNINGSINTERVALL

Solution: always render the badge, but make it invisible when there's no savings:

<Badge className={clsx({'invisible': !plan?.savePercentage || plan.savePercentage === 0})}>
  {plan?.savePercentage > 0
    ? t('pro.plans.save', {percent: plan.savePercentage})
    : 'Placeholder'}
</Badge>

The invisible class hides the element but preserves its space in the layout. Now all cards have identical vertical rhythm.

Files Modified

Only one file changed: src/pages/Pro/Pricing.jsx. The changes:

Simplified card flex layout from responsive to always column
Removed flex-grow from pricing cards, added to grid
Added items-stretch to grid container
Replaced dropdown with toggle cards
Split amount formatting into number + currency spans
Added "på första fakturan" text to full payment option
Changed selected state from bg-primary/5 to bg-layer-below
Made savings badge always render with conditional visibility

Lessons

First, structural consistency matters more than responsive cleverness. The working card used simple flex-col. The broken cards used responsive flex switching. Match the structure.

Second, mt-auto only works when the parent flex container has extra vertical space to consume. If items fill the container, there's nothing to push against.

Third, design systems are documentation. The sidebar used bg-layer-below for hover states. That's the semantic color for "selected interactive element background."

Fourth, invisible placeholders maintain layout rhythm. The conditional badge needed to always occupy space, just not always be visible.

Fifth, read the existing codebase. The custom plan card already had the correct pattern. Copy success instead of inventing complexity.

The changes deployed before end of day. Buttons aligned. Payment options clear. Design system consistent.