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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Frameworks
  4. Front End Frameworks
  5. Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Bootstrap
Bootstrap
Stacks57.4K
Followers13.2K
Votes7.7K
GitHub Stars173.6K
Forks79.2K
Foundation
Foundation
Stacks1.2K
Followers1.2K
Votes740
Material-UI
Material-UI
Stacks2.7K
Followers3.7K
Votes445

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs Material UI: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Bootstrap, Foundation, and Material UI are popular front-end frameworks used to create responsive websites. While they serve the same purpose, they have some key differences that set them apart from each other.

Key differences between Bootstrap, Foundation, and Material UI:

  1. Grid System: Bootstrap provides a powerful 12-column grid system that allows for flexible and responsive layouts. Foundation also offers a similar grid system with customization options. However, Material UI does not have a built-in grid system and relies on CSS Grid or Flexbox for layout design.

  2. Design Philosophy: Bootstrap focuses on providing a ready-to-use set of UI components and styles that follow a consistent design language. Foundation, on the other hand, emphasizes flexibility and customization, allowing developers to build unique designs. Material UI follows Google's Material Design principles, offering a visually appealing and intuitive interface.

  3. Component Library: Bootstrap offers a comprehensive library of pre-designed UI components, such as buttons, forms, and navigation bars, making it easy for developers to quickly build websites. Foundation also provides a wide range of components but offers more customization options. Material UI has a rich collection of React components designed following the Material Design guidelines.

  4. Documentation and Community Support: Bootstrap and Foundation both have extensive documentation and a large community of developers contributing to their growth. Material UI has a well-documented API reference and an active community, mainly focused on React developers.

  5. Browser Compatibility: Bootstrap is known for its wide browser compatibility, supporting older versions of popular browsers. Foundation also supports a wide range of browsers, but may have limited compatibility with older versions. Material UI is designed to work with modern browsers and may require polyfills for older browsers.

  6. Integration with Frameworks: Bootstrap and Foundation can be used with any web framework or development stack, making them versatile choices. Material UI, on the other hand, is primarily designed for use with React and has deeper integration with the React ecosystem.

In summary, Bootstrap provides a ready-to-use collection of UI components with a focus on consistency, while Foundation offers flexibility and customization options. Material UI follows Google's Material Design principles, offering a visually appealing interface primarily for React developers.

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Advice on Bootstrap, Foundation, Material-UI

Bridget
Bridget

Full Stack Developer at Bridget Sarah

May 29, 2020

Decided

I do prefer to write things from scratch however when it came to wanting to jump-start the frontend, I found that it was taking me a lot longer hence why needing to use something very fast.

Bootstrap was the boom when it came out, I didn't like it, to be honest, set in its way and a pain to over-ride and in addition, you can tell from a distance if you're using boostrap and as everything looks the same.

I came across Tailwind CSS as I wanted more dynamic features, you could say, I've been now doing it for a few days and I love it a lot. I've been practising with the full stack part installed but I an't we wait until I do a new project, and I'll e able to select exactly what I want. Much faster.

681k views681k
Comments
Daniel
Daniel

Frontend Developer at atSistemas

Jun 10, 2020

Needs adviceonNew RelicNew RelicNext.jsNext.jsReactReact

I'm building, from scratch, a webapp. It's going to be a dashboard to check on our apps in New Relic and update the Apdex from the webapp. I have just chosen Next.js as our framework because we use React already, and after going through the tutorial, I just loved the latest changes they have implemented.

But we have to decide on a CSS framework for the UI. I'm partial to Bulma because I love that it's all about CSS (and you can use SCSS from the start), that it's rather lightweight and that it doesn't come with JavaScript clutter. One of the things I hate about Bootstrap is that you depend on jQuery to use the JavaScript part. My boss loves UIkIt, but when I've used it in the past, I didn't like it.

What do you think we should use? Maybe you have another suggestion?

1.07M views1.07M
Comments
Syed
Syed

Jul 16, 2020

Needs adviceonBootstrapBootstrapTailwind CSSTailwind CSS

I am planning to redesign my entire application, which is currently in Bootstrap. I heard about Tailwind CSS, and I think its really cool to work with. Is it okay if I use Bootstrap and Tailwind together? I can't remove Bootstrap altogether, as my application is using the js dependencies of Bootstrap, which I don't want to disturb.

739k views739k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Bootstrap
Bootstrap
Foundation
Foundation
Material-UI
Material-UI

Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web.

Foundation is the most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world. You can quickly prototype and build sites or apps that work on any kind of device with Foundation, which includes layout constructs (like a fully responsive grid), elements and best practices.

Material UI is a library of React UI components that implements Google's Material Design.

Preprocessors: Bootstrap ships with vanilla CSS, but its source code utilizes the two most popular CSS preprocessors, Less and Sass. Quickly get started with precompiled CSS or build on the source.;One framework, every device: Bootstrap easily and efficiently scales your websites and applications with a single code base, from phones to tablets to desktops with CSS media queries.;Full of features: With Bootstrap, you get extensive and beautiful documentation for common HTML elements, dozens of custom HTML and CSS components, and awesome jQuery plugins.
Semantic: Everything is semantic. You can have the cleanest markup without sacrificing the utility and speed of Foundation.;Mobile First: You can build for small devices first. Then, as devices get larger and larger, layer in more complexity for a complete responsive design.;Customizable: You can customize your build to include or remove certain elements, as well as define the size of columns, colors, font size and more.;Professional: Millions of designers and developers depend on Foundation. Now we have business support, training and consulting to help grow your product or service.
Tables; Forms; Snackbars; Buttons; Theming
Statistics
GitHub Stars
173.6K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
79.2K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
57.4K
Stacks
1.2K
Stacks
2.7K
Followers
13.2K
Followers
1.2K
Followers
3.7K
Votes
7.7K
Votes
740
Votes
445
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 1582
    Responsiveness
  • 1193
    UI components
  • 943
    Consistent
  • 779
    Great docs
  • 677
    Flexible
Cons
  • 26
    Javascript is tied to jquery
  • 16
    Every site uses the defaults
  • 15
    Grid system break points aren't ideal
  • 14
    Too much heavy decoration in default look
  • 8
    Verbose styles
Pros
  • 160
    Responsive grid
  • 93
    Mobile first
  • 80
    Open source
  • 75
    Semantic
  • 72
    Customizable
Cons
  • 5
    Requires jQuery
  • 4
    Awful site
Pros
  • 141
    React
  • 82
    Material Design
  • 60
    Ui components
  • 30
    CSS framework
  • 26
    Component
Cons
  • 36
    Hard to learn. Bad documentation
  • 29
    Hard to customize
  • 22
    Hard to understand Docs
  • 9
    Bad performance
  • 7
    For editable table component need to use material-table
Integrations
No integrations availableNo integrations available
React
React
Emotion
Emotion
Next.js
Next.js
styled-components
styled-components
Node.js
Node.js

What are some alternatives to Bootstrap, Foundation, Material-UI?

Semantic UI

Semantic UI

Semantic empowers designers and developers by creating a shared vocabulary for UI.

Materialize

Materialize

A CSS Framework based on material design.

Material Design for Angular

Material Design for Angular

Material Design is a specification for a unified system of visual, motion, and interaction design that adapts across different devices. Our goal is to deliver a lean, lightweight set of AngularJS-native UI elements that implement the material design system for use in Angular SPAs.

Blazor

Blazor

Blazor is a .NET web framework that runs in any browser. You author Blazor apps using C#/Razor and HTML.

Quasar Framework

Quasar Framework

Build responsive Single Page Apps, SSR Apps, PWAs, Hybrid Mobile Apps and Electron Apps, all using the same codebase!, powered with Vue.

Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js presets all the configuration needed to make your development of a Vue.js application enjoyable. You can use Nuxt.js for SSR, SPA, Static Generated, PWA and more.

UIkIt

UIkIt

UIkit gives you a comprehensive collection of HTML, CSS, and JS components which is simple to use, easy to customize and extendable.

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind is different from frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, or Bulma in that it's not a UI kit. It doesn't have a default theme, and there are no build-in UI components. It comes with a menu of predesigned widgets to build your site with, but doesn't impose design decisions that are difficult to undo.

Ant Design

Ant Design

An enterprise-class UI design language and React-based implementation. Graceful UI components out of the box, base on React Component. A npm + webpack + babel + dora + dva development framework.

Vuetify

Vuetify

Vuetify is a component framework for Vue.js 2. It aims to provide clean, semantic and reusable components that make building your application a breeze. Vuetify utilizes Google's Material Design design pattern, taking cues from other popular frameworks such as Materialize.css, Material Design Lite, Semantic UI and Bootstrap 4.

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