CSS Frameworks Comparison
bootstrap vs bulma vs foundation-sites vs materialize-css
1 Year
bootstrapbulmafoundation-sitesmaterialize-cssSimilar Packages:
What's CSS Frameworks?

CSS frameworks are pre-prepared libraries that are meant to be used as a base for starting a project. They provide a standardized set of styles and components that help developers create responsive and aesthetically pleasing web applications quickly. These frameworks often include a grid system, pre-styled components, and utility classes that streamline the development process, ensuring consistency across different browsers and devices. By utilizing a CSS framework, developers can save time on styling and focus on functionality, leading to faster project completion and improved maintainability.

NPM Package Downloads Trend
Github Stars Ranking
Stat Detail
Package
Downloads
Stars
Size
Issues
Publish
License
bootstrap4,556,081171,0379.67 MB65210 months agoMIT
bulma176,29649,4336.15 MB4804 months agoMIT
foundation-sites79,72429,66824.7 MB472 months agoMIT
materialize-css23,24938,864-7946 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: bootstrap vs bulma vs foundation-sites vs materialize-css

Design Principles

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap follows a mobile-first design approach, ensuring that applications are responsive and accessible on all devices. It provides a grid system and numerous components that adhere to a consistent design language, making it easy to create visually appealing layouts.

  • bulma:

    Bulma is built on Flexbox, which allows for more efficient and flexible layouts. Its design philosophy emphasizes simplicity and readability, making it easy to create clean and modern interfaces without excessive complexity.

  • foundation-sites:

    Foundation Sites focuses on a mobile-first approach and is designed for responsive web applications. It offers a robust grid system and customizable components, allowing developers to create tailored solutions for various screen sizes and devices.

  • materialize-css:

    Materialize CSS is based on Material Design principles, which emphasize depth, motion, and bold colors. It provides components that reflect these principles, ensuring a cohesive and modern user experience.

Customization

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap allows for extensive customization through its Sass variables and mixins, enabling developers to easily modify the framework's default styles to match their project's branding and design requirements.

  • bulma:

    Bulma is highly customizable with a straightforward syntax, allowing developers to override default styles using variables. Its modular structure means you can import only the components you need, reducing bloat.

  • foundation-sites:

    Foundation Sites offers a high degree of customization through Sass variables and a powerful grid system. Developers can create unique designs while maintaining a consistent structure throughout their applications.

  • materialize-css:

    Materialize CSS provides customization options through Sass variables, but it is more opinionated in terms of design. While it allows for some modifications, it encourages adherence to Material Design guidelines.

Component Variety

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap offers a vast array of pre-built components, including navigation bars, modals, alerts, and more. This extensive library allows developers to quickly implement common UI elements without needing to create them from scratch.

  • bulma:

    Bulma provides a solid set of components, but it is less extensive than Bootstrap. It focuses on essential UI elements, which can be beneficial for projects that require a minimalist approach.

  • foundation-sites:

    Foundation Sites boasts a rich set of components designed for complex applications, including advanced features like responsive tables and off-canvas navigation. This makes it suitable for projects that require more than just basic UI elements.

  • materialize-css:

    Materialize CSS includes a variety of components that follow Material Design guidelines, such as cards, buttons, and forms. While it provides a good selection, it may not be as extensive as Bootstrap.

Learning Curve

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap has a gentle learning curve, making it accessible for beginners. Its extensive documentation and examples help new developers quickly understand how to implement its components and utilities.

  • bulma:

    Bulma is straightforward to learn, especially for those familiar with CSS. Its clear syntax and modular approach make it easy to pick up and start using effectively.

  • foundation-sites:

    Foundation Sites has a steeper learning curve due to its advanced features and customization options. However, it offers comprehensive documentation that can help developers navigate its complexities.

  • materialize-css:

    Materialize CSS is relatively easy to learn, especially for those familiar with Material Design concepts. Its documentation provides clear examples, but understanding the underlying design principles may require some additional learning.

Community and Support

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap has a large and active community, which means extensive resources, tutorials, and third-party plugins are available. This support network can be invaluable for troubleshooting and enhancing projects.

  • bulma:

    Bulma has a growing community, but it is smaller compared to Bootstrap. While resources are available, they may not be as extensive, which could pose challenges for new users seeking help.

  • foundation-sites:

    Foundation Sites has a dedicated community, but it is less prominent than Bootstrap's. Documentation is thorough, but finding third-party resources may be more challenging.

  • materialize-css:

    Materialize CSS has a smaller community, which can limit the availability of resources and support. However, its adherence to Material Design principles means that many resources for Material Design can still be applicable.

How to Choose: bootstrap vs bulma vs foundation-sites vs materialize-css
  • bootstrap:

    Choose Bootstrap if you need a widely adopted framework with extensive documentation, a large community, and a comprehensive set of pre-built components. It's ideal for projects requiring a quick setup and a responsive design out of the box.

  • bulma:

    Choose Bulma if you prefer a modern, flexbox-based framework that emphasizes simplicity and minimalism. It's great for developers who want a clean design without the overhead of JavaScript components.

  • foundation-sites:

    Choose Foundation Sites if you need a highly customizable framework that offers advanced features and a mobile-first approach. It's suitable for complex projects where flexibility and customization are key.

  • materialize-css:

    Choose Materialize CSS if you want to implement Material Design principles in your web application. It provides a cohesive look and feel inspired by Google's design guidelines, making it perfect for projects aiming for a modern aesthetic.

README for bootstrap

Bootstrap logo

Bootstrap

Sleek, intuitive, and powerful front-end framework for faster and easier web development.
Explore Bootstrap docs »

Report bug · Request feature · Themes · Blog

Bootstrap 5

Our default branch is for development of our Bootstrap 5 release. Head to the v4-dev branch to view the readme, documentation, and source code for Bootstrap 4.

Table of contents

Quick start

Several quick start options are available:

  • Download the latest release
  • Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap.git
  • Install with npm: npm install bootstrap@v5.3.3
  • Install with yarn: yarn add bootstrap@v5.3.3
  • Install with Composer: composer require twbs/bootstrap:5.3.3
  • Install with NuGet: CSS: Install-Package bootstrap Sass: Install-Package bootstrap.sass

Read the Getting started page for information on the framework contents, templates, examples, and more.

Status

Build Status npm version Gem version Meteor Atmosphere Packagist Prerelease NuGet Coverage Status CSS gzip size CSS Brotli size JS gzip size JS Brotli size Backers on Open Collective Sponsors on Open Collective

What's included

Within the download you'll find the following directories and files, logically grouping common assets and providing both compiled and minified variations.

Download contents
bootstrap/
├── css/
│   ├── bootstrap-grid.css
│   ├── bootstrap-grid.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-grid.min.css
│   ├── bootstrap-grid.min.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-grid.rtl.css
│   ├── bootstrap-grid.rtl.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-grid.rtl.min.css
│   ├── bootstrap-grid.rtl.min.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-reboot.css
│   ├── bootstrap-reboot.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-reboot.min.css
│   ├── bootstrap-reboot.min.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-reboot.rtl.css
│   ├── bootstrap-reboot.rtl.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-reboot.rtl.min.css
│   ├── bootstrap-reboot.rtl.min.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-utilities.css
│   ├── bootstrap-utilities.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-utilities.min.css
│   ├── bootstrap-utilities.min.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-utilities.rtl.css
│   ├── bootstrap-utilities.rtl.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap-utilities.rtl.min.css
│   ├── bootstrap-utilities.rtl.min.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap.css
│   ├── bootstrap.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap.min.css
│   ├── bootstrap.min.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap.rtl.css
│   ├── bootstrap.rtl.css.map
│   ├── bootstrap.rtl.min.css
│   └── bootstrap.rtl.min.css.map
└── js/
    ├── bootstrap.bundle.js
    ├── bootstrap.bundle.js.map
    ├── bootstrap.bundle.min.js
    ├── bootstrap.bundle.min.js.map
    ├── bootstrap.esm.js
    ├── bootstrap.esm.js.map
    ├── bootstrap.esm.min.js
    ├── bootstrap.esm.min.js.map
    ├── bootstrap.js
    ├── bootstrap.js.map
    ├── bootstrap.min.js
    └── bootstrap.min.js.map

We provide compiled CSS and JS (bootstrap.*), as well as compiled and minified CSS and JS (bootstrap.min.*). Source maps (bootstrap.*.map) are available for use with certain browsers' developer tools. Bundled JS files (bootstrap.bundle.js and minified bootstrap.bundle.min.js) include Popper.

Bugs and feature requests

Have a bug or a feature request? Please first read the issue guidelines and search for existing and closed issues. If your problem or idea is not addressed yet, please open a new issue.

Documentation

Bootstrap's documentation, included in this repo in the root directory, is built with Hugo and publicly hosted on GitHub Pages at https://getbootstrap.com/. The docs may also be run locally.

Documentation search is powered by Algolia's DocSearch.

Running documentation locally

  1. Run npm install to install the Node.js dependencies, including Hugo (the site builder).
  2. Run npm run test (or a specific npm script) to rebuild distributed CSS and JavaScript files, as well as our docs assets.
  3. From the root /bootstrap directory, run npm run docs-serve in the command line.
  4. Open http://localhost:9001/ in your browser, and voilà.

Learn more about using Hugo by reading its documentation.

Documentation for previous releases

You can find all our previous releases docs on https://getbootstrap.com/docs/versions/.

Previous releases and their documentation are also available for download.

Contributing

Please read through our contributing guidelines. Included are directions for opening issues, coding standards, and notes on development.

Moreover, if your pull request contains JavaScript patches or features, you must include relevant unit tests. All HTML and CSS should conform to the Code Guide, maintained by Mark Otto.

Editor preferences are available in the editor config for easy use in common text editors. Read more and download plugins at https://editorconfig.org/.

Community

Get updates on Bootstrap's development and chat with the project maintainers and community members.

Versioning

For transparency into our release cycle and in striving to maintain backward compatibility, Bootstrap is maintained under the Semantic Versioning guidelines. Sometimes we screw up, but we adhere to those rules whenever possible.

See the Releases section of our GitHub project for changelogs for each release version of Bootstrap. Release announcement posts on the official Bootstrap blog contain summaries of the most noteworthy changes made in each release.

Creators

Mark Otto

Jacob Thornton

Thanks

BrowserStack

Thanks to BrowserStack for providing the infrastructure that allows us to test in real browsers!

Netlify

Thanks to Netlify for providing us with Deploy Previews!

Sponsors

Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. [Become a sponsor]

OC sponsor 0 OC sponsor 1 OC sponsor 2 OC sponsor 3 OC sponsor 4 OC sponsor 5 OC sponsor 6 OC sponsor 7 OC sponsor 8 OC sponsor 9

Backers

Thank you to all our backers! 🙏 [Become a backer]

Backers

Copyright and license

Code and documentation copyright 2011–2024 the Bootstrap Authors. Code released under the MIT License. Docs released under Creative Commons.