@mui/icons-material vs react-icons vs font-awesome vs @material-ui/icons vs material-icons vs material-design-icons
Icon Libraries for Web Development Comparison
1 Year
@mui/icons-materialreact-iconsfont-awesome@material-ui/iconsmaterial-iconsmaterial-design-iconsSimilar Packages:
What's Icon Libraries for Web Development?

Icon libraries provide a collection of scalable vector icons that can be easily integrated into web applications. They enhance user interfaces by offering visual representations of actions, objects, and concepts, improving user experience and accessibility. Each library has its own design philosophy, usage patterns, and integration methods, catering to different project needs and developer preferences.

Package Weekly Downloads Trend
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Stat Detail
Package
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License
@mui/icons-material3,912,09694,92618 MB1,8445 days agoMIT
react-icons3,207,82311,90186.2 MB20012 days agoMIT
font-awesome832,38374,707-4,1278 years ago(OFL-1.1 AND MIT)
@material-ui/icons783,68294,92610.2 MB1,844-MIT
material-icons208,4873292.23 MB1119 days agoApache-2.0
material-design-icons71,28351,176-3449 years agoApache-2.0
Feature Comparison: @mui/icons-material vs react-icons vs font-awesome vs @material-ui/icons vs material-icons vs material-design-icons

Design Consistency

  • @mui/icons-material:

    Maintains design consistency with the latest Material Design guidelines, offering a modern aesthetic for new applications.

  • react-icons:

    Allows the use of multiple icon libraries, which may lead to inconsistencies if not managed carefully.

  • font-awesome:

    Offers a diverse range of icons with different styles, but may lack consistency in design across its various icon sets.

  • @material-ui/icons:

    Provides a consistent set of icons that align with Material Design, ensuring uniformity across your UI components.

  • material-icons:

    Delivers a straightforward set of Material Design icons, ensuring consistency without additional overhead.

  • material-design-icons:

    Follows Material Design principles, providing a consistent look and feel that integrates well with Material Design applications.

Integration Ease

  • @mui/icons-material:

    Designed for easy integration with the latest MUI framework, simplifying the import and usage process.

  • react-icons:

    Offers a straightforward API for integrating various icon libraries into React applications.

  • font-awesome:

    Can be integrated via CDN or npm, but may require additional setup for React projects.

  • @material-ui/icons:

    Seamlessly integrates with Material-UI components, making it easy to use within React applications.

  • material-icons:

    Simple to use with minimal setup, making it ideal for quick implementations.

  • material-design-icons:

    Easy to integrate into any web project, especially those following Material Design principles.

Icon Variety

  • @mui/icons-material:

    Provides a modern selection of icons that are continuously updated, catering to contemporary design needs.

  • react-icons:

    Aggregates icons from various libraries, providing a wide variety of options for developers.

  • font-awesome:

    Features a vast collection of icons across multiple styles, making it suitable for diverse projects.

  • @material-ui/icons:

    Includes a curated set of icons specifically designed for Material Design applications, but may not cover all use cases.

  • material-icons:

    Provides a basic set of Material Design icons, suitable for most standard use cases.

  • material-design-icons:

    Offers a solid selection of Material Design icons, though not as extensive as Font Awesome.

Customization

  • @mui/icons-material:

    Supports customization in line with MUI's theming capabilities, making it easy to adapt to different design requirements.

  • react-icons:

    Highly customizable, allowing developers to style icons using standard CSS or inline styles.

  • font-awesome:

    Offers various styles and sizes, but customization may require additional CSS adjustments.

  • @material-ui/icons:

    Allows customization through Material-UI theming, enabling developers to adjust colors and sizes easily.

  • material-icons:

    Customization is straightforward, allowing for size adjustments and color changes without much hassle.

  • material-design-icons:

    Customization options are limited compared to other libraries, focusing on adherence to Material Design.

Community Support

  • @mui/icons-material:

    Supported by the MUI community, which is active and continuously improving the library.

  • react-icons:

    Benefits from a growing community of React developers, providing resources and examples for integration.

  • font-awesome:

    One of the most popular icon libraries with extensive community support, documentation, and resources available.

  • @material-ui/icons:

    Backed by a strong community and extensive documentation, making it easier to find solutions and examples.

  • material-icons:

    Widely used and supported, with ample documentation available for developers.

  • material-design-icons:

    Supported by Google, ensuring a reliable source of updates and community resources.

How to Choose: @mui/icons-material vs react-icons vs font-awesome vs @material-ui/icons vs material-icons vs material-design-icons
  • @mui/icons-material:

    Opt for this package if you are working with the latest version of Material-UI (MUI) and want a more modern approach to icon usage. It offers a streamlined import process and is better suited for new projects that utilize the updated MUI framework.

  • react-icons:

    Select React Icons if you want a flexible and customizable icon library that allows you to use icons from various popular libraries (including Font Awesome, Material Icons, etc.) in a React-friendly way. It is ideal for projects that require a mix of icon styles and easy integration.

  • font-awesome:

    Select Font Awesome if you need a comprehensive icon library with a wide variety of icons and styles, including solid, regular, and brands. It is particularly useful for projects that require a diverse set of icons and can benefit from its extensive community support and documentation.

  • @material-ui/icons:

    Choose this package if you are using Material-UI for your React application and need a consistent set of icons that align with Material Design principles. It is ideal for projects that require a cohesive design language and easy integration with Material-UI components.

  • material-icons:

    Choose Material Icons for a lightweight and straightforward implementation of Google’s Material Design icons. It is perfect for projects that need basic icon usage without additional dependencies, making it easy to integrate into any web application.

  • material-design-icons:

    Use Material Design Icons if you want a free and open-source set of icons that follow Google’s Material Design guidelines. This package is suitable for projects that prioritize adherence to Material Design principles without the overhead of a full framework.

README for @mui/icons-material

@mui/icons-material

This package contains Google's Material Icons converted to Material UI SVG Icon components.

Google also offers Material Symbols as the successor of Material Icons. @mui/icons-material only covers Icons at this time, there are no support for Symbols yet.

Installation

The Material Icons package depends on Material UI—install both with the following command:

npm install @mui/icons-material @mui/material @emotion/styled @emotion/react

Documentation

Contributing

The Icons package is updated via a script that reads through Google's Material Icons set and extracts the SVG elements from there. Because of this, we don't accept new icons that diverge from the source.

To update the @mui/icons-material package with the latest Material Icons set, run the following commands:

  1. In the "mui-icons-material" directory, run pnpm src:download
  2. In the "mui-icons-material" directory, run pnpm src:icons
  3. In the root of the Material UI repo, run pnpm docs:mdicons:synonyms
  4. If the number of icons changes significantly, edit the icons/icons.md and material-icons/material-icons.md under docs/data/material/components and update the numbers.

This process is performed by the maintainers on a quarterly basis.