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

Icon libraries in React provide developers with a collection of scalable vector icons that can be easily integrated into web applications. They enhance the user interface by adding visual elements that improve usability and aesthetics. These libraries often offer a variety of icons, customization options, and ease of use, making them essential tools for modern web development.

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react-icons3,207,82311,90186.2 MB20012 days agoMIT
@remixicon/react67,8827,1834.74 MB5243 months agoApache-2.0
react-fontawesome41,548667-95 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: react-icons vs @remixicon/react vs react-fontawesome

Icon Variety

  • react-icons:

    react-icons aggregates icons from multiple libraries, including Font Awesome, Material Icons, and others, giving developers access to a diverse selection of icons without needing to manage multiple dependencies.

  • @remixicon/react:

    @remixicon/react offers a wide range of icons, including basic shapes, social media icons, and more specialized icons, all designed with a modern aesthetic. The library is continuously updated to include new icons, ensuring that developers have access to the latest trends in iconography.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome provides access to the extensive Font Awesome library, which includes thousands of icons covering various categories such as web application icons, social media, and more. This extensive variety allows developers to find the perfect icon for any use case.

Customization

  • react-icons:

    react-icons provides basic customization options for size and color, but since it aggregates icons from different libraries, the level of customization may vary depending on the specific icon set used.

  • @remixicon/react:

    @remixicon/react allows for easy customization of icon size, color, and style through CSS. This flexibility enables developers to seamlessly integrate icons into their design systems and maintain a consistent look and feel across their applications.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome offers customization options such as size, color, and rotation, along with advanced features like animation and layering. This makes it a powerful choice for developers looking to create dynamic and visually appealing interfaces.

Ease of Use

  • react-icons:

    react-icons is very easy to use, allowing developers to import icons directly from various libraries with minimal setup. Its straightforward approach makes it a great choice for quick projects or prototypes.

  • @remixicon/react:

    @remixicon/react is designed with simplicity in mind, making it easy to import and use icons in React components. The straightforward API allows developers to quickly integrate icons without extensive setup or configuration.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome has a well-documented API and provides a simple way to include icons in your React components. The library's popularity means that many developers are already familiar with its usage, reducing the learning curve.

Performance

  • react-icons:

    react-icons is lightweight and aggregates icons from various libraries, which can help reduce the overall bundle size if used wisely. However, since it pulls in multiple libraries, careful management of imports is necessary to avoid bloating the application.

  • @remixicon/react:

    @remixicon/react is optimized for performance, ensuring that icons are rendered efficiently without impacting the overall application load time. The library is lightweight, which contributes to faster rendering times in web applications.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome is designed to be performant, but it can become heavier if many icons are used simultaneously. Developers can mitigate this by only importing the icons they need, which helps maintain optimal performance.

Community and Support

  • react-icons:

    react-icons has a vibrant community due to its aggregation of multiple libraries, which means that developers can find support for various icon sets. However, since it is a wrapper around other libraries, the support may vary depending on the specific icons used.

  • @remixicon/react:

    @remixicon/react is backed by a growing community, and its documentation is clear and helpful. As it gains popularity, more resources and community support are becoming available, making it easier for developers to find help and examples.

  • react-fontawesome:

    react-fontawesome benefits from the extensive Font Awesome community, which provides a wealth of resources, tutorials, and support. Its long-standing presence in the industry means that many developers are familiar with it, leading to a strong support network.

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

    Choose react-icons if you need a lightweight solution that aggregates icons from various popular icon libraries, allowing you to use icons from multiple sources without having to install each library individually. It is ideal for projects that require flexibility and a diverse icon selection.

  • @remixicon/react:

    Choose @remixicon/react if you are looking for a comprehensive set of beautifully designed icons that are specifically tailored for modern web applications. It offers a wide range of icons with a consistent style and is easy to customize with CSS.

  • react-fontawesome:

    Choose react-fontawesome if you want access to the popular Font Awesome icon set, which includes a vast library of icons and is widely recognized in the industry. It provides a robust set of features, including icon animation and layering, making it suitable for complex UI designs.

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.