react-icons vs @fortawesome/react-fontawesome vs react-fontawesome
React Icon Libraries Comparison
1 Year
react-icons@fortawesome/react-fontawesomereact-fontawesomeSimilar Packages:
What's React Icon Libraries?

React icon libraries provide developers with a collection of scalable vector icons that can be easily integrated into React applications. These libraries enhance the visual appeal of web applications by offering a wide range of icons that are customizable and responsive. They help in maintaining a consistent design language across applications and improve user experience by providing recognizable symbols for actions and content. Each library has its unique features, advantages, and use cases, making it essential for developers to choose the right one based on their project requirements.

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react-icons3,168,80711,90986.2 MB20014 days agoMIT
@fortawesome/react-fontawesome1,196,8043,69637.8 kB1169 months agoMIT
react-fontawesome41,522667-95 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: react-icons vs @fortawesome/react-fontawesome vs react-fontawesome

Icon Variety

  • react-icons:

    react-icons aggregates multiple icon libraries, including Font Awesome, Material Design, and others, providing a diverse range of icons from different sources. This makes it an excellent choice for developers looking for variety and flexibility in icon selection.

  • @fortawesome/react-fontawesome:

    @fortawesome/react-fontawesome offers an extensive collection of icons, including solid, regular, and light styles, as well as brand icons. This variety allows developers to select the most appropriate icon style for their application, ensuring a cohesive design.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome provides a good selection of Font Awesome icons but is more limited compared to @fortawesome/react-fontawesome. It is suitable for projects that require basic icon usage without the need for extensive customization or styles.

Customization

  • react-icons:

    react-icons provides basic customization options, such as size and color, but may not support advanced styling features available in other libraries. It is best for simple use cases where extensive customization is not required.

  • @fortawesome/react-fontawesome:

    @fortawesome/react-fontawesome allows for extensive customization of icons, including size, color, and rotation. Developers can easily adjust these properties using props, making it simple to integrate icons into different design systems.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome offers some customization options, but it may not be as flexible as @fortawesome/react-fontawesome. It allows basic styling but lacks advanced features for fine-tuning icon appearance.

Performance

  • react-icons:

    react-icons is designed to be lightweight and efficient, as it allows importing only the required icons from various libraries. This helps maintain performance while providing access to a wide range of icons.

  • @fortawesome/react-fontawesome:

    @fortawesome/react-fontawesome is optimized for performance, allowing developers to import only the icons they need, reducing bundle size and improving load times. This is particularly beneficial for large applications with many icons.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome may have a larger footprint due to its reliance on the full Font Awesome library, which could impact performance if not managed correctly. Developers should be mindful of the icons they import to optimize performance.

Community and Support

  • react-icons:

    react-icons benefits from a diverse community due to its aggregation of multiple icon libraries. This means developers can find support and resources for various icons, but the documentation may not be as centralized.

  • @fortawesome/react-fontawesome:

    @fortawesome/react-fontawesome is part of the Font Awesome ecosystem, which has a large community and extensive documentation. This ensures that developers can find support and resources easily when using the library.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome has a smaller community compared to @fortawesome/react-fontawesome, which may result in fewer resources and support options. However, it is still widely used and has decent documentation.

Ease of Use

  • react-icons:

    react-icons is designed for simplicity, allowing developers to quickly import and use icons from various libraries. Its straightforward approach makes it accessible for beginners.

  • @fortawesome/react-fontawesome:

    @fortawesome/react-fontawesome is user-friendly, with a straightforward API that makes it easy to integrate icons into React components. The documentation is clear, helping developers get started quickly.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome is relatively easy to use, but its API may not be as intuitive as @fortawesome/react-fontawesome. Developers may need to refer to documentation more frequently to understand its usage.

How to Choose: react-icons vs @fortawesome/react-fontawesome vs react-fontawesome
  • @fortawesome/react-fontawesome:

    Choose @fortawesome/react-fontawesome if you need a comprehensive icon library with a vast selection of icons, including brand logos and social media icons. It is ideal for projects that require high-quality, customizable icons with support for different styles and weights.

README for react-icons
React Icons

React Icons

npm

Include popular icons in your React projects easily with react-icons, which utilizes ES6 imports that allows you to include only the icons that your project is using.

Installation (for standard modern project)

yarn add react-icons
# or
npm install react-icons --save

example usage

import { FaBeer } from "react-icons/fa";

function Question() {
  return (
    <h3>
      Lets go for a <FaBeer />?
    </h3>
  );
}

View the documentation for further usage examples and how to use icons from other packages. NOTE: each Icon package has it's own subfolder under react-icons you import from.

For example, to use an icon from Material Design, your import would be: import { ICON_NAME } from 'react-icons/md';

Installation (for meteorjs, gatsbyjs, etc)

Note This option has not had a new release for some time. More info https://github.com/react-icons/react-icons/issues/593

If your project grows in size, this option is available. This method has the trade-off that it takes a long time to install the package.

yarn add @react-icons/all-files
# or
npm install @react-icons/all-files --save

example usage

import { FaBeer } from "@react-icons/all-files/fa/FaBeer";

function Question() {
  return (
    <h3>
      Lets go for a <FaBeer />?
    </h3>
  );
}

Icons

| Icon Library | License | Version | Count | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | ----: | | Circum Icons | MPL-2.0 license | 1.0.0 | 288 | | Font Awesome 5 | CC BY 4.0 License | 5.15.4-3-gafecf2a | 1612 | | Font Awesome 6 | CC BY 4.0 License | 6.5.2 | 2045 | | Ionicons 4 | MIT | 4.6.3 | 696 | | Ionicons 5 | MIT | 5.5.4 | 1332 | | Material Design icons | Apache License Version 2.0 | 4.0.0-98-g9beae745bb | 4341 | | Typicons | CC BY-SA 3.0 | 2.1.2 | 336 | | Github Octicons icons | MIT | 18.3.0 | 264 | | Feather | MIT | 4.29.1 | 287 | | Lucide | ISC | v5.1.0-6-g438f572e | 1215 | | Game Icons | CC BY 3.0 | 12920d6565588f0512542a3cb0cdfd36a497f910 | 4040 | | Weather Icons | SIL OFL 1.1 | 2.0.12 | 219 | | Devicons | MIT | 1.8.0 | 192 | | Ant Design Icons | MIT | 4.4.2 | 831 | | Bootstrap Icons | MIT | 1.11.3 | 2716 | | Remix Icon | Apache License Version 2.0 | 4.2.0 | 2860 | | Flat Color Icons | MIT | 1.0.2 | 329 | | Grommet-Icons | Apache License Version 2.0 | 4.12.1 | 635 | | Heroicons | MIT | 1.0.6 | 460 | | Heroicons 2 | MIT | 2.1.3 | 888 | | Simple Icons | CC0 1.0 Universal | 12.14.0 | 3209 | | Simple Line Icons | MIT | 2.5.5 | 189 | | IcoMoon Free | CC BY 4.0 License | d006795ede82361e1bac1ee76f215cf1dc51e4ca | 491 | | BoxIcons | MIT | 2.1.4 | 1634 | | css.gg | MIT | 2.1.1 | 704 | | VS Code Icons | CC BY 4.0 | 0.0.35 | 461 | | Tabler Icons | MIT | 3.2.0 | 5237 | | Themify Icons | MIT | v0.1.2-2-g9600186 | 352 | | Radix Icons | MIT | @radix-ui/react-icons@1.3.0-1-g94b3fcf | 318 | | Phosphor Icons | MIT | 2.1.1 | 9072 | | Icons8 Line Awesome | MIT | 1.3.1 | 1544 |

You can add more icons by submitting pull requests or creating issues.

Configuration

You can configure react-icons props using React Context API.

Requires React 16.3 or higher.

import { IconContext } from "react-icons";

<IconContext.Provider value={{ color: "blue", className: "global-class-name" }}>
  <div>
    <FaFolder />
  </div>
</IconContext.Provider>;

| Key | Default | Notes | | ----------- | --------------------- | ---------------------------------- | | color | undefined (inherit) | | | size | 1em | | | className | undefined | | | style | undefined | Can overwrite size and color | | attr | undefined | Overwritten by other attributes | | title | undefined | Icon description for accessibility |

Migrating from version 2 -> 3

Change import style

Import path has changed. You need to rewrite from the old style.

// OLD IMPORT STYLE
import FaBeer from "react-icons/lib/fa/beer";

function Question() {
  return (
    <h3>
      Lets go for a <FaBeer />?
    </h3>
  );
}
// NEW IMPORT STYLE
import { FaBeer } from "react-icons/fa";

function Question() {
  return (
    <h3>
      Lets go for a <FaBeer />?
    </h3>
  );
}

Ending up with a large JS bundle? Check out this issue.

Adjustment CSS

From version 3, vertical-align: middle is not automatically given. Please use IconContext to specify className or specify an inline style.

Global Inline Styling

<IconContext.Provider value={{ style: { verticalAlign: 'middle' } }}>

Global className Styling

Component

<IconContext.Provider value={{ className: 'react-icons' }}>

CSS

.react-icons {
  vertical-align: middle;
}

TypeScript native support

Dependencies on @types/react-icons can be deleted.

Yarn

yarn remove @types/react-icons

NPM

npm remove @types/react-icons

Contributing

./build-script.sh will build the whole project. See also CI scripts for more information.

Development

yarn
cd packages/react-icons
yarn fetch  # fetch icon sources
yarn build

Add/Update icon set

First, check the discussion to see if anyone would like to add an icon set.

https://github.com/react-icons/react-icons/discussions/categories/new-icon-set

The SVG files to be fetched are managed in this file. Edit this file and run yarn fetch && yarn check && yarn build.

https://github.com/react-icons/react-icons/blob/master/packages/react-icons/src/icons/index.ts

Preview

Note The project is not actively accepting PR for the preview site at this time.

The preview site is the react-icons website, built in Astro+React.

cd packages/react-icons
yarn fetch
yarn build

cd ../preview-astro
yarn start

Demo

The demo is a Create React App boilerplate with react-icons added as a dependency for easy testing.

cd packages/react-icons
yarn fetch
yarn build

cd ../demo
yarn start

Why React SVG components instead of fonts?

SVG is supported by all major browsers. With react-icons, you can serve only the needed icons instead of one big font file to the users, helping you to recognize which icons are used in your project.

Related Projects

Licence

MIT

  • Icons are taken from the other projects so please check each project licences accordingly.