Angular Material vs Kendo UI: What are the differences?

Introduction

Angular Material and Kendo UI are two popular frameworks used for building user interfaces in web applications. Both frameworks provide a set of UI components and tools that can enhance the look and feel of web applications. However, there are several key differences between Angular Material and Kendo UI.

1. Design Philosophy: Angular Material follows the Material Design principles, which focus on creating a visually appealing and interactive user interface. On the other hand, Kendo UI offers a more traditional and customizable UI design.

2. Integration with Angular: Angular Material is specifically designed for use with Angular, which means it integrates seamlessly with Angular projects and provides a cohesive development experience. Kendo UI, on the other hand, can be used with different JavaScript frameworks, including Angular, but may require additional configuration and setup.

3. Component Availability: Angular Material provides a comprehensive set of UI components out-of-the-box, including buttons, cards, forms, and navigation components. Kendo UI offers a wider range of UI components, including data grids, charts, and visualization tools, which makes it suitable for more complex and data-intensive applications.

4. Customization and Theming: Angular Material provides a built-in theming system that allows developers to easily customize the appearance of UI components to match their application's brand and style. Kendo UI also offers theming capabilities but requires more effort and expertise to achieve a fully customized design.

5. License and Pricing: Angular Material is an open-source framework licensed under the MIT license, which means it is free to use and modify. Kendo UI, on the other hand, is a commercial framework that requires a license for commercial use. It offers both a free trial version and commercial licenses with different pricing options.

6. Community and Support: Angular Material benefits from a large and active community of developers due to its close association with the Angular ecosystem. It has extensive documentation, online resources, and community support. Kendo UI also has a dedicated community and provides documentation and support, but may have a smaller community compared to Angular Material.

In summary, Angular Material and Kendo UI differ in their design philosophy, integration with Angular, component availability, customization and theming capabilities, licensing and pricing, as well as community and support.