bootstrap vs bulma vs foundation-sites vs tachyons vs tailwind vs materialize-css vs uikit
CSS Frameworks Comparison
1 Year
bootstrapbulmafoundation-sitestachyonstailwindmaterialize-cssuikitSimilar Packages:
What's CSS Frameworks?

CSS frameworks are pre-prepared libraries that are meant to be used as a base for starting a specific type of project. They provide a standardized structure for CSS, which helps in speeding up the development process, ensuring consistency across different web pages, and simplifying the maintenance of styles. These frameworks come with a set of predefined styles, components, and utilities that can be easily integrated into web projects, allowing developers to focus on functionality rather than design from scratch.

Package Weekly Downloads Trend
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Package
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bootstrap4,622,580171,4109.67 MB677a year agoMIT
bulma192,56149,5816.97 MB4912 months agoMIT
foundation-sites83,92029,72124.7 MB595 months agoMIT
tachyons78,48911,651-895 years agoMIT
tailwind31,219-358 kB--AGPL-3.0
materialize-css28,41938,869-7936 years agoMIT
uikit19,43218,38212.4 MB59714 days agoMIT
Feature Comparison: bootstrap vs bulma vs foundation-sites vs tachyons vs tailwind vs materialize-css vs uikit

Design Principles

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap follows a mobile-first approach and emphasizes responsive design, providing a grid system and pre-defined components that adapt to various screen sizes.

  • bulma:

    Bulma is built on Flexbox, promoting a clean and modern design philosophy that focuses on simplicity and ease of use, making it easy to create responsive layouts.

  • foundation-sites:

    Foundation Sites is designed with a mobile-first mindset and offers a flexible grid system, allowing for complex layouts while ensuring responsiveness across devices.

  • tachyons:

    Tachyons promotes a functional CSS approach, encouraging developers to use small, reusable utility classes to build responsive interfaces without writing custom CSS.

  • tailwind:

    Tailwind CSS is utility-first, allowing developers to compose styles directly in their HTML, promoting a design system that is both flexible and maintainable.

  • materialize-css:

    Materialize CSS is based on Google's Material Design, emphasizing depth, shadows, and animations to create a visually engaging user experience.

  • uikit:

    UIkit provides a modular approach, allowing developers to pick and choose components as needed, promoting a clean and consistent design across applications.

Customization

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap is customizable through SASS variables, allowing developers to modify the default styles and components to fit their branding and design requirements.

  • bulma:

    Bulma is highly customizable with SASS, enabling developers to easily adjust variables and create a unique design while maintaining a consistent layout.

  • foundation-sites:

    Foundation Sites offers extensive customization options through SASS, allowing developers to tailor the framework to their specific needs and design preferences.

  • tachyons:

    Tachyons encourages customization through utility classes, allowing developers to create unique designs without the need for extensive CSS overrides.

  • tailwind:

    Tailwind CSS is built for customization, providing a configuration file where developers can define their design tokens, making it easy to create a unique design system.

  • materialize-css:

    Materialize CSS allows for some customization but is more opinionated due to its adherence to Material Design principles, which may limit flexibility in design.

  • uikit:

    UIkit allows for customization through LESS or SASS, enabling developers to modify styles and components to suit their project needs.

Learning Curve

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap has a moderate learning curve, especially for beginners, due to its extensive documentation and numerous components that require some time to master.

  • bulma:

    Bulma is relatively easy to learn, especially for those familiar with CSS, as it has a straightforward syntax and clear documentation.

  • foundation-sites:

    Foundation Sites has a steeper learning curve compared to Bootstrap, as it offers more advanced features and customization options that may require additional time to understand.

  • tachyons:

    Tachyons has a low learning curve, as its utility-first approach is intuitive for developers who are comfortable with CSS, allowing for quick implementation.

  • tailwind:

    Tailwind CSS has a moderate learning curve, as it requires developers to understand its utility-first approach, but it becomes intuitive with practice and experience.

  • materialize-css:

    Materialize CSS is easy to learn for those familiar with Material Design, but may require some time for others to fully grasp its components and styles.

  • uikit:

    UIkit has a moderate learning curve, with a well-structured documentation that helps developers understand its modular components and customization options.

Community and Support

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap has a large community and extensive support, with numerous resources, tutorials, and third-party themes available for developers.

  • bulma:

    Bulma has a growing community and good documentation, but it may not have as many resources as Bootstrap due to its relative newness.

  • foundation-sites:

    Foundation Sites has a dedicated community, but its popularity has waned compared to Bootstrap, resulting in fewer resources and third-party components.

  • tachyons:

    Tachyons has a smaller community, but it is supported by a passionate group of developers who contribute to its growth and provide resources.

  • tailwind:

    Tailwind CSS has rapidly gained popularity and has a strong community, with a wealth of resources, plugins, and support available for developers.

  • materialize-css:

    Materialize CSS has a moderate community presence, with some resources available, but it does not match the scale of Bootstrap or Tailwind.

  • uikit:

    UIkit has a moderate community, with decent documentation and resources, but it may not be as widely adopted as some of the other frameworks.

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

    Choose Bootstrap if you need a robust, widely-used framework with extensive documentation and a large community. It's ideal for projects that require a responsive design and a grid system, along with a variety of pre-built components.

  • bulma:

    Select Bulma if you prefer a modern, lightweight framework that uses Flexbox for layout. It's great for developers who want a clean and minimalistic design without the overhead of JavaScript components.

  • foundation-sites:

    Opt for Foundation Sites if you need a highly customizable framework with a mobile-first approach. It's suitable for complex applications that require advanced features and a flexible grid system.

  • tachyons:

    Choose Tachyons if you prefer a utility-first approach to styling. It's ideal for those who want to build fast-loading, responsive interfaces with minimal CSS by using small, reusable classes.

  • tailwind:

    Select Tailwind CSS if you want a highly customizable utility-first framework that allows for rapid UI development. It's perfect for developers who enjoy composing styles directly in their markup and prefer a more hands-on approach to design.

  • materialize-css:

    Go for Materialize CSS if you want to implement Material Design principles in your project. It's perfect for developers looking to create visually appealing interfaces that follow Google's design guidelines.

  • uikit:

    Opt for UIkit if you need a modular and lightweight framework that offers a comprehensive set of components. It's suitable for developers who want to create fast and powerful web interfaces with a clean design.

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]

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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.