Factually talking about systems, we gotta make two bold headlines about each one: Bootstrap has been around for a while, has a vast community and much probably will not be gone in a while. Tailwind in the other hand, is the trendy framework starting from the past year. Referring to UI, I really prefer Tailwind, however I can't ignore the fact that a lot of libraries that emerged felt short in the end after a few years (a point where Bootstrap kept his status).

You are able to use both them together but I advise you — it will be a mess. And you gotta hope that you won't have any kind of conflicts between class naming and other general styling.

My recommendation would be to use one and only one. Perhaps rebuild the UI with a specific framework in mind, otherwise you will start to workaround things of both frameworks to contradict each other - and your team (if you work with one) will hate you.

You might have heard about bootstrap 5. Bootstrap is now totally jQuery free. i have tried foundation and bulma too. but eventually fall again for bootstrap, as it is most convenient and stable. i use bootstrap with less or sass.

I use both of these regularly. If you're going to have to use Bootstrap due to your js dependencies, stick with Bootstrap. I actually prefer Tailwind, but trying to use both of them and make them "play nice" feels like making things more complex with no real benefit.

EDIT: Sorry for the late response, I just noticed how old this is. StackShare sent me this in an email for some reason so I assumed it was relatively fresh.

First of all, it seems that you are comparing apples to hammers to wristwatches. Webflow, React and Bootstrap are entirely different tools trying to solve entirely different problems. So, with respect, I want to ignore that part of the question and focus on what you probably need as I understand it.

Second; the marketing website and the customer portal are different beasts entirely. They will probably have completely different problems to solve, and those will require completely different tools.

Third; as I understand from your explanation, it is yet too early to decide on a tech stack for the systems you want to build. You have some goals in mind, but those must first turn into well-thought designs that include user flows, information architecture, service design blueprints etc. as needed. Only then it may be possible to make a sensible comparison of tech tools and components that would best support that architecture.

Most techies have their favorite tools that they would vouch for, and some others that they disdain. They have their reasons for that, but those are not your reasons. A tool that has worked wonders for someone's project may create friction for you, while another that was a disaster for for someone else's project may just solve your most critical problem. There is no one size fits all answer to choice of tools. So please take all sorts of "Tool X rocks/sucks" advice with a grain of salt.

As I understand it, your company does not have the intrinsic capability or tech acumen to get this done with its own people. That's ok. Your core business is something else. But this is an important supporting business function, so I think it deserves some care and attention.

So my primary advice is: The first tool you need is a capable and experienced consultant. (If you were a bigger company, I'd say employ one full time, but with your current scale, a long-term contract with an independent professional or consulting firm will be more cost-effective). This consultant is supposed to guide you through the entire process of design and implementation of the systems you need. They should be your guide and advocate when you hire contractors to design or build your site/portal/whatever. They should make sure that the end result is aligned with your business goals.

The second thing you need is a solid design process that clearly defines the things you need (portal/website/etc.) for your -guess what again?- business goals. Decide with your consultant from step 1 on how to best get that. Contracting, partnering, and forming an internal team should all be on the table.

Only then you may realistically start to think about how to build these things. When you have your implementers (again, contracted, partnered or internal) and your detailed design documentation describing what you want in detail. those people should be able to make the best call on what sort of tech stack to use, in order to bring that design to life.

All this may sound daunting and arduous but it is not. The practice is established and solid. A simpler project can go through all that within weeks and go live. Even a larger project can launch in a couple of months and keep building on that afterwards.

On a side note, projects like this are living projects. they are never "done". Please account for having time/money/resources for these as long as they stay up. Going live is just the beginning.

So, start by finding your consultant :)

PS. StackShare forces me to "recommend a tool" before I can post this, so I'm "recommending" my favorite videoconferencing tool (which was recently renamed to Whereby but SS seems to have missed that). Feel free to get in touch for a video call if you have more questions :)

Hi Whitney, I would recommend using Webflow to design the marketing website, and use Laravel for the customer portal. You can also use Webflow for the design of the customer portal area, but as far as the marketing goes, I would keep your marketing site separate from your customer app, as you won't want marketing people to have access to customer info easily, and you will want to separate concerns to keep things easy to manage.

Your desire for employees to easily update site content is easy to do with Webflow, and will be the best cms for the marketing side.

Reason why I recommend Laravel for the customer app, is that it is secure, highly scalable, well designed, and you will easily find people to help with future development of the site.

If you would like help with any of this, I would be happy to help. I have a small web development and design company.

I have used bulma in several projects. We could not customize with the websites very well. Also when we need "quick solutions" Bulma is not suitable (I mean basic animations, to-top buttons, transparent navbar solutions etc. For these solutions, you need extra js codes).

Everybody knows about Bootstrap (heavy but popular).

Now we start a new project with UI kit, I like it. Pros: It is fast and lightweight and imho it has very good UI. Cons: Small community. Documentation.

Check this link for kick-off. https://github.com/zzseba78/Kick-Off

Maybe it is helpful.

Been checking out Bulma, myself, and really dig it. I like that it's a great base level jumping off point. You can get a layout going with it, pretty quickly, and then customize as you want. It definitely sounds like it's the one you're leaning towards but a big factor would be who will be using it most? Your boss, yourself, others? Whichever you like best, you'll prob be most productive with but if in the end your boss says it has to be UIkit, then best to be open-minded and give it another shot. Sometimes you may not jive with new tools in your stack, at first, but then they can become tools you learn to love. Best to you in your decision! Take care & keep safe.

You can also check TailWindCss

I've moved away from the concept of UI kits. Not that many support CSS grid. A lot of the icons are easier to use in SVG. I've had success in the concept of design framework and design tokens. I build my brand identity in Figma, and extract in Diez. Then Diez integrates into React and SASS. Much easier because design is decoupled from software in a central authority, and software updates automatically from design changes.

Honestly - pick whatever you are the most comfortable with. You can achieve almost the same effects with different tools, so why not use something I like using?

Actually it really depends on your needs, there are 3 types of UI frameworks you can use:

1. A complete set of UI components like: https://react-bulma.dev/en/getting-started.

   Pros:

   Having a lot of pre-built UI components saves a lot of time

   Cons:

   need to learn the react framework and the bulma styles, and it's harder to customize to your needs

2. A pure css framework, like Bulma, where you write all the components yourself.

   Pros:

   A lot of flexibility to build the components you need

   Cons:

   You are bound to Bulma classes and markup.

   Takes more time since you need to build the components

3. A utility class framework like: https://tailwindcss.com/.

Pros:

Most flexible, mix and match classes as you like and build your own markup

Very easy to customize to your needs

Cons:

Might take time to get used to and takes more time since you need to build the components

If you choose options one, then it's just a matter of deciding what style you like (material,ant, bulma) and go with the library that implements it If you go with pure css and build your own components, I can't recommend tailwind enough, I've been finding myself building entire pages without writing a single line of css.

And if later on, the designer wants to make a change to some color, or size, I just need to change one value in the config file, and the entire app is updated.

I used UIKit and Bootstrap many times. I love Bootstrap for fast, easy layouts to web apps. Clean code, easiest and fastest way to write layouts for front end if you learned something before about Bootstrap. Now in React I use React-Boostrap too. About UIKit I can say its nice idea. It's easier than Bootstrap. This is good option for trainee developer to learn how u should create layout of your website, but for me UIKit have not enough functions. If you need to create something complicated, u have an error in your mind. You must create amazing code combinations for UIKit where in Bootstrap in the same ideas you have easy solutions.

I'm a big proponent of Tailwind and I personally use it whenever I get the chance, mostly because it's not really a UI-kit, but it sounds like in this case a UI-kit like Bootstrap with pre-defined components is more what you are looking for. Bootstrap is (relatively) extendable and overridable and makes it really simple to make a decent looking UI using a handful of pre-defined classes, whereas with Tailwind you configure the classes and create your own components. My main reason for replacing Bootstrap in my workflow is that it feels like the component creation has become so abstracted from the developer that any meaningful customization becomes a chore, resulting in many websites having the generic "Bootstrap-look". Nonetheless, it is effective for creating a pleasant and responsive UI. Though, I don't have any experience with UIkit.

Hey Sai, My thoughts on UIkit - It's beautiful, it's fast and it has good animation too. Why would I choose it ? Nothing other than giving the internet a new look .

My thoughts on Bootstrap - it's beautiful, if used well. It's very fast and has clean class naming convention unlike Uikit.

Why I would choose it ? It's been tested and trusted, I can find a whole lot of resources and a community around it. Also with the type of project you working on I bet Bootstrap would do the job .

My thoughts on tailwind - classic, difficult to set up and clean utilities. I wouldn't think of tailwind the way I would to Bootstrap or UIkit. What do I mean ? Tailwind is more like a tool set to create your own design flow rather than giving you a pre-designed button it gives you the ability to design yours.

My final thoughts.

If you have the time , setup and use tailwind it will give you a great chance when it comes to extending and performance.