react-icons vs @mui/icons-material vs font-awesome vs @material-ui/icons vs material-icons vs material-design-icons
Icon Libraries for Web Development Comparison
3 Years
react-icons@mui/icons-materialfont-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
Github Stars Ranking
Stat Detail
Package
Downloads
Stars
Size
Issues
Publish
License
react-icons16,282,076
12,26186.2 MB2216 months agoMIT
@mui/icons-material4,228,052
96,41019.3 MB1,76514 days agoMIT
font-awesome776,126
75,581-3,7729 years ago(OFL-1.1 AND MIT)
@material-ui/icons696,835
96,41010.2 MB1,765-MIT
material-icons186,190
3482.23 MB136 months agoApache-2.0
material-design-icons63,114
51,984-3739 years agoApache-2.0
Feature Comparison: react-icons vs @mui/icons-material vs font-awesome vs @material-ui/icons vs material-icons vs material-design-icons

Design Consistency

  • react-icons:

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

  • @mui/icons-material:

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

  • 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

  • react-icons:

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

  • @mui/icons-material:

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

  • 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

  • react-icons:

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

  • @mui/icons-material:

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

  • 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

  • react-icons:

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

  • @mui/icons-material:

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

  • 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

  • react-icons:

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

  • @mui/icons-material:

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

  • 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: react-icons vs @mui/icons-material vs font-awesome vs @material-ui/icons vs material-icons vs material-design-icons
  • 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.

  • @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.

  • 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 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.