# Better Stack design system

> Better Stack design system measured from betterstack.com: Helvetica Now Display font, 16 color hex codes, type scale and spacing. Dark theme with 16px corners.

Canonical page: https://sitepeel.dev/design-md/betterstack.com/

Better Stack’s website (betterstack.com) uses the Helvetica Now Display font and #5B63D3 as its main color on a #0B0C14 background. Measured by Sitepeel on November 4, 2026.

## What font does Better Stack use?

Better Stack uses Helvetica Now Display (weights 500 and 700) and Helvetica Now Text (weights 400 and 700) on betterstack.com. Page titles are 53px at weight 500 (40px on phones) and body text is 14px. Measured on November 4, 2026.

- Helvetica Now Display (weights 500, 700)
- Helvetica Now Text (weights 400, 700)

## Better Stack colors: palette and hex codes

Better Stack’s main colors are #0B0C14 (cool charcoal) for the background, #939DB8 (blue) for text and #5B63D3 (indigo) as the main accent, with #E9C899 (light orange) and #64C28D (green) as other accents. Measured on November 4, 2026.

- #0B0C14: cool charcoal
- #939DB8: blue
- #FFFFFF: white
- #C9D3EE: pale blue
- #646E87: blue
- #0F101A: cool charcoal
- #171926: cool charcoal
- #5B63D3: indigo

## What is Better Stack built with?

Better Stack’s website (betterstack.com) is built with Hotwire Turbo, Stimulus, Tailwind CSS, Cloudflare and AOS. Measured on November 4, 2026.

- JavaScript framework: Hotwire Turbo, Stimulus
- Analytics: Meta Pixel 2.9.435, Sentry 10.75.0, Microsoft Advertising, Reddit Pixel
- Hosting & CDN: Cloudflare
- UI & CSS: Tailwind CSS 4.x
- Animation & 3D: AOS

## Questions and answers

### What font does Better Stack use?

Better Stack’s website uses Helvetica Now Display (weights 500 and 700) and Helvetica Now Text (weights 400 and 700). Page titles are 53px at weight 500 (40px on phones) and body text is 14px. Measured on November 4, 2026.

### What are the Better Stack colors and hex codes?

On betterstack.com: #0B0C14 (cool charcoal) for the background, #939DB8 (blue) for text and #5B63D3 (indigo) as the main accent, with #E9C899 (light orange) and #64C28D (green) as other accents. The color palette above lists all 16 colors with their hex codes and where each one is used.

### What is the Better Stack design system?

The design system on this page is betterstack.com’s, as measured on November 4, 2026: Helvetica Now Display type, #5B63D3 as the main color and 16px corners, written down as a DESIGN.md. It is not Better Stack’s own documentation.

### What is Better Stack built with?

Better Stack’s website (betterstack.com) is built with Hotwire Turbo, Stimulus, Tailwind CSS, Cloudflare and AOS. The full tech stack Sitepeel found: Hotwire Turbo, Stimulus, Meta Pixel, Sentry, Cloudflare, Microsoft Advertising, Reddit Pixel, X Pixel, Tailwind CSS and AOS. Measured on November 4, 2026.

### What is the Better Stack DESIGN.md?

A plain-text file with Better Stack’s measured colors, type, spacing, corners and components as tokens, plus short rules, in the DESIGN.md format Google published with Stitch. Your AI coding agent reads it and builds in this style. More about DESIGN.md.

### How do I use it with Claude Code or Cursor?

Download the file and put it in your project’s root folder, then ask your agent to follow DESIGN.md. Step-by-step guides: Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot.

### Is this Better Stack’s official design system?

No. Sitepeel measured it from betterstack.com’s public page on November 4, 2026. It is an independent analysis, not made or approved by Better Stack.

### Can I use Better Stack’s style in my own product?

Use it to learn, prototype and compare. For a real product, make the style your own, and never copy Better Stack’s logo, name, pictures or text.

### How accurate are the values?

Each value was measured on the rendered page after it fully loaded, on desktop and mobile: colors where they appear, type with tracking, spacing, corners, shadows and hover states. Sites change, so check the date at the top.

## Files

- [DESIGN.md](https://sitepeel.dev/design-md/betterstack.com/DESIGN.md): the plain file to put in your project.
- [All brand DESIGN.md files](https://sitepeel.dev/design-md/examples/index.md)

Independent analysis by Sitepeel (sitepeel.dev), not affiliated with Better Stack.

## The DESIGN.md file

```markdown
---
version: alpha
name: Better Stack
description: "Dark interface measured from betterstack.com: Helvetica Now Display type with Helvetica Now Text, indigo accents, tonal surfaces and pill-shaped controls."
colors:
  background: "#0B0C14"
  surface: "#0B0C14"
  on-surface: "#939DB8"
  on-background: "#939DB8"
  on-surface-strong: "#FFFFFF"
  on-surface-variant: "#C9D3EE"
  on-surface-muted: "#646E87"
  surface-container-low: "#0F101A"
  surface-container: "#171926"
  overlay: "#727DA11A"
  overlay-strong: "#0B0C14CC"
  outline: "#939DB81A"
  outline-variant: "#939DB833"
  primary: "#5B63D3"
  on-primary: "#FFFFFF"
  secondary: "#E9C899"
  tertiary: "#64C28D"
  link: "#98A4F7"
typography:
  headline-display:
    fontFamily: Helvetica Now Display
    fontSize: 53px
    fontWeight: 500
    lineHeight: 1.1
  headline-lg:
    fontFamily: Helvetica Now Display
    fontSize: 40px
    fontWeight: 700
    lineHeight: 0.6
  headline-md:
    fontFamily: Helvetica Now Text
    fontSize: 28px
    fontWeight: 700
    lineHeight: 1.17
  body-md:
    fontFamily: Helvetica Now Text
    fontSize: 14px
    fontWeight: 400
    lineHeight: 1.55
  body-sm:
    fontFamily: Helvetica Now Text
    fontSize: 13px
    fontWeight: 400
    lineHeight: 1.6
  caption:
    fontFamily: Helvetica Now Text
    fontSize: 12px
    fontWeight: 400
    lineHeight: 1.5
  label-md:
    fontFamily: Helvetica Now Text
    fontSize: 16px
    fontWeight: 400
    lineHeight: 1.5
  headline-display-mobile:
    fontFamily: Helvetica Now Display
    fontSize: 40px
    fontWeight: 500
    lineHeight: 1.1
  headline-lg-mobile:
    fontFamily: Helvetica Now Display
    fontSize: 28px
    fontWeight: 700
    lineHeight: 0.86
rounded:
  md: 16px
  full: 9999px
spacing:
  xs: 4px
  sm: 8px
  md: 12px
  lg: 20px
  xl: 60px
  container: 1100px
components:
  button-primary:
    textColor: "{colors.on-primary}"
    typography: "{typography.body-sm}"
    rounded: 8px
    padding: 0px 8px
    height: 27px
  button-outline:
    backgroundColor: "{colors.surface-container}"
    textColor: "{colors.on-surface-variant}"
    typography: "{typography.body-sm}"
    rounded: 43px
    padding: 0px 12px
    height: 37px
  button-ghost:
    textColor: "{colors.on-surface-variant}"
    typography: "{typography.body-sm}"
    rounded: 0px
    padding: 12px 24px 12px 12px
  input-field:
    textColor: "{colors.on-surface-strong}"
    typography: "{typography.label-md}"
    rounded: 12px
    padding: 0px 20px
  link:
    textColor: "{colors.link}"
---

# Better Stack Design System

## Overview

Better Stack describes itself as: “AI SRE and MCP server, incident management, on-call, logs, metrics, traces, and error tracking. 7,000+ happy customers. 60-day money back guarantee.” The interface is dark, built on **Cool Charcoal (#0B0C14)** with **Blue (#939DB8)** text, and **Indigo (#5B63D3)** as the main accent.

Type is set in **Helvetica Now Display** and **Helvetica Now Text**. Headlines run large; body text is 14px. Depth comes from hairline borders and inset highlights rather than drop shadows. Controls are pill-shaped.

Measured from [betterstack.com](https://betterstack.com/) on November 4, 2026 at 1440×900 and 390×844 from 323 rendered elements. Values are computed styles from the live page, not the original source files.

## Colors

The palette has 16 roles, plus gradient stops #939DB8, #5B63D3, #7C87F7.

- **Cool Charcoal (#0B0C14):** Page background, seen 3 times. Token `background`.
- **Blue (#939DB8):** Primary text and headings, seen 24 times. Token `on-surface`, CSS `--color-neutral-200`.
- **White (#FFFFFF):** Headings and emphasis, seen 66 times. Token `on-surface-strong`, CSS `--tw-ring-offset-color`.
- **Pale Blue (#C9D3EE):** Secondary text, seen 14 times. Token `on-surface-variant`.
- **Blue (#646E87):** Muted text and metadata, seen 47 times. Token `on-surface-muted`, CSS `--color-neutral-300`.
- **Cool Charcoal (#0F101A):** Raised areas one step from the page, seen 37 times. Token `surface-container-low`.
- **Cool Charcoal (#171926):** Cards and panels, seen 27 times. Token `surface-container`.
- **Blue 10% (#727DA11A):** Translucent fill for cards and controls, seen 2 times. Token `overlay`.
- **Cool Charcoal 80% (#0B0C14CC):** Stronger translucent fill, seen 1 time. Token `overlay-strong`.
- **Blue 10% (#939DB81A):** Borders and dividers, seen 37 times. Token `outline`.
- **Blue 20% (#939DB833):** Secondary dividers, seen 27 times. Token `outline-variant`.
- **Indigo (#5B63D3):** Brand accent (CSS variable), seen 2 times. Token `primary`, CSS `--color-brand-primary-200`.
- **White (#FFFFFF):** Text and icons on primary. Token `on-primary`.
- **Light Orange (#E9C899):** Accent (CSS variable). Token `secondary`.
- **Green (#64C28D):** Accent (CSS variable). Token `tertiary`.
- **Light Indigo (#98A4F7):** Inline links, seen 10 times. Token `link`.

## Typography

**Helvetica Now Display** and **Helvetica Now Text** share the interface. Fallback stack: `Helvetica Now Display, Helvetica Now Display Extended, ui-sans-serif, system-ui`.

- **headline-display:** Helvetica Now Display 53px at weight 500, line height 1.1 (40px on mobile). Page title (h1).
- **headline-lg:** Helvetica Now Display 40px at weight 700, line height 0.6 (28px on mobile). Section headings (h2).
- **headline-md:** Helvetica Now Text 28px at weight 700, line height 1.17. Sub-section headings.
- **body-md:** Helvetica Now Text 14px at weight 400, line height 1.55. Body text.
- **body-sm:** Helvetica Now Text 13px at weight 400, line height 1.6. Secondary and small text.
- **caption:** Helvetica Now Text 12px at weight 400, line height 1.5. Captions and fine print.
- **label-md:** Helvetica Now Text 16px at weight 400, line height 1.5. Buttons, navigation and labels.

## Layout

Spacing is mostly on a 4px grid (89% of measured values), with some off-grid steps. Match the measured scale rather than rounding everything.

- **Scale:** xs 4px, sm 8px, md 12px, lg 20px, xl 60px.
- **Container:** content is capped at 1100px.

## Elevation & Depth

The design avoids drop shadows. Layers are separated by tonal surface steps (#0F101A → #171926) and hairline rings:

- `rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.25) 0px 1px 3px 0px inset`

## Shapes

Interactive controls are pill-shaped. Measured radii, most used first:

- **md (16px):** 148 elements.
- **full (9999px):** 104 elements.

## Components

Measured from the rendered page. Token values reference the tokens above.

- **button-primary (“Sign up”):** transparent fill, #FFFFFF text, 13px/500, 8px radius, padding 0px 8px, border 1px solid #FFFFFF1C, shadow `rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.25) 0px 1px 3px 0px inset`.
- **button-outline (“Explore pricing”):** #171926 fill, #C9D3EE text, 13px/400, 43px radius, padding 0px 12px, border 1px solid #939DB833.
- **button-ghost (“Platform”):** transparent fill, #C9D3EE text, 13px/400, padding 12px 24px 12px 12px.
- **input-field (“Your work e-mail”):** transparent fill, #FFFFFF text, 16px/400, 12px radius, padding 0px 20px.
- **link:** transparent fill, #98A4F7 text, padding 0px.

## Do's and Don'ts

- Do use #0B0C14 for the page and lift surfaces in small steps: #0F101A, #171926.
- Do keep text in 4 levels: #939DB8, #FFFFFF, #C9D3EE, #646E87.
- Do use #5B63D3 as the brand accent: header, logo and key highlights.
- Do reuse the measured spacing steps (8px, 12px, 20px).
- Do make buttons and chips fully rounded (9999px); most other elements use 16px corners.
- Don't use #646E87 for body text; it reaches 3.83:1 on #0B0C14. Keep it for large text or metadata.
- Don't add drop shadows for depth; use hairline rings and tonal surfaces.
- Don't introduce new font families beyond Helvetica Now Display and Helvetica Now Text.
- Don't use #5B63D3 for large backgrounds or body text.
- Don't make interface transitions slower than 0.4s.

## Motion

Interface transitions are quick: 0.15s, 0.4s. Longer ambient animations run 1s.

- **Easing:** `cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)`, `ease`.
- **Reduced motion:** the page responds to `prefers-reduced-motion`.

Generated by [Sitepeel](https://sitepeel.dev/design-md/betterstack.com/), the free DESIGN.md generator (engine 2026.10.29+b828a475ee10).

```