Ant Design vs Material-UI: What are the differences?

Ant Design and Material-UI are both popular UI component libraries. They provide a rich set of pre-designed UI components. The key differences between Ant Design and Material-UI are:

1. Design Philosophy: Ant Design follows a more traditional and business-oriented design philosophy. It offers a comprehensive set of components with a focus on productivity and enterprise-level applications. Material-UI, on the other hand, is inspired by Google's Material Design principles, which emphasize clean and modern aesthetics with a focus on visual consistency and usability.

2. Component Styles: Ant Design components exhibit a formal and conservative style, characterized by traditional layouts and color schemes that are well-suited for corporate and professional applications. In contrast, Material-UI components embrace a lively and dynamic style, showcasing bold colors, shadows, and motion effects that align with the vibrant aesthetics outlined in the Material Design guidelines.

3. Component Selection: Ant Design provides a broader range of UI components, including complex components specific to enterprise applications such as data tables, form layouts, and organization charts. Material-UI offers a comprehensive set of components as well but focuses more on core UI elements like buttons, forms, navigation, and layout grids.

4. Theming and Customization: Ant Design provides a comprehensive theming system that enables easy customization of colors, typography, and component styles. On the other hand, Material-UI focuses on adhering to Material Design guidelines, making it easier to achieve a consistent and unified appearance throughout the application while still offering theming options.

5. Community and Ecosystem: Material-UI has a larger and more active community, with a wide range of third-party resources, tutorials, and community-driven projects available. Ant Design also has a growing community but may have a more focused presence within certain regions or industries.

6. Integration with Frameworks: Material-UI has strong integration with React and provides React-specific components and utilities. It aligns well with the React ecosystem and leverages popular state management libraries. Ant Design also supports React but is not limited to it. It offers support for other frameworks such as Angular and Vue.js, providing flexibility for developers using different frameworks.

In summary, Ant Design and Material-UI are feature-rich UI component libraries with distinct design philosophies. Ant Design focuses on productivity and enterprise applications, offering a broad range of components, while Material-UI follows the Material Design guidelines, providing a visually appealing and modern design aesthetic.