UI Component Libraries Comparison
bootstrap vs semantic-ui-react vs material-ui
1 Year
bootstrapsemantic-ui-reactmaterial-uiSimilar Packages:
What's UI Component Libraries?

UI component libraries are collections of pre-built user interface components that help developers create visually appealing and consistent web applications quickly. These libraries provide a set of design principles, styles, and components that can be easily integrated into projects, allowing developers to focus on functionality rather than design from scratch. Each library has its own design philosophy and component offerings, catering to different needs and preferences in web development.

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bootstrap4,553,724171,0599.67 MB65310 months agoMIT
semantic-ui-react248,10313,2342.9 MB212a year agoMIT
material-ui51,88594,224-1,8766 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: bootstrap vs semantic-ui-react vs material-ui

Design Philosophy

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap follows a mobile-first approach and emphasizes responsive design, making it easy to create layouts that adapt to various screen sizes. Its design is minimalistic, focusing on usability and simplicity, which allows for quick implementation without deep customization.

  • semantic-ui-react:

    Semantic UI React promotes the use of human-friendly HTML and a semantic approach to UI design. It emphasizes clarity and simplicity in its components, making it easy for developers to create intuitive interfaces that are accessible and user-friendly.

  • material-ui:

    Material-UI is based on Google's Material Design, which emphasizes depth, shadows, and responsive animations. It provides a rich set of components that are designed to create a cohesive and visually appealing user experience, focusing on interaction and feedback.

Customization

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap allows for customization through its Sass variables and mixins, enabling developers to easily modify styles to fit their brand. However, extensive customization may require overriding default styles, which can lead to complexity.

  • semantic-ui-react:

    Semantic UI React allows for customization through its theming capabilities, enabling developers to create custom themes that align with their design requirements. It also provides a straightforward API for overriding styles, making it easier to achieve a unique look.

  • material-ui:

    Material-UI offers a powerful theming system that allows developers to customize the appearance of components at a global level. It supports CSS-in-JS, making it easy to apply styles dynamically based on component state or props, providing a high degree of flexibility.

Component Variety

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap provides a wide range of components, including navigation bars, modals, alerts, and forms. While it covers most common UI needs, it may lack some advanced components found in more specialized libraries.

  • semantic-ui-react:

    Semantic UI React provides a diverse set of components that are designed with a focus on usability and accessibility. It includes components like dropdowns, progress bars, and various form elements, making it versatile for different types of applications.

  • material-ui:

    Material-UI offers a comprehensive set of components that are designed to follow Material Design guidelines. It includes advanced components like date pickers, sliders, and more, making it suitable for complex applications that require rich interactions.

Community and Ecosystem

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap has a large community and extensive documentation, making it easy to find resources, tutorials, and third-party plugins. Its widespread use means that many developers are familiar with it, facilitating collaboration and support.

  • semantic-ui-react:

    Semantic UI React has a supportive community and decent documentation, although it may not be as extensive as Bootstrap or Material-UI. It focuses on providing clear examples and a straightforward API, making it easier for developers to get started.

  • material-ui:

    Material-UI has a growing community and a rich ecosystem of components and extensions. Its documentation is thorough, and it provides examples and use cases that help developers implement components effectively.

Learning Curve

  • bootstrap:

    Bootstrap is relatively easy to learn, especially for beginners. Its straightforward class-based approach allows developers to quickly understand how to use its components without deep knowledge of CSS or JavaScript.

  • semantic-ui-react:

    Semantic UI React is designed to be intuitive, with a focus on semantic HTML. Its learning curve is gentle, especially for those who are already familiar with React, as it emphasizes clear and understandable component structures.

  • material-ui:

    Material-UI has a moderate learning curve, particularly for those unfamiliar with Material Design principles. However, its comprehensive documentation and examples help ease the learning process for developers familiar with React.

How to Choose: bootstrap vs semantic-ui-react vs material-ui
  • bootstrap:

    Choose Bootstrap if you need a straightforward and widely-used framework that offers a responsive grid system and a large number of pre-designed components. It's ideal for rapid prototyping and projects where you want a clean, classic look without extensive customization.

  • semantic-ui-react:

    Choose Semantic UI React if you want a library that emphasizes human-friendly HTML and a semantic approach to building user interfaces. It is great for projects that require a clean and intuitive design, with a focus on usability and accessibility.

  • material-ui:

    Choose Material-UI if you are building applications that require a modern aesthetic based on Google's Material Design principles. It provides a comprehensive set of components that are highly customizable and work well with React, making it suitable for projects that prioritize user experience and design consistency.

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.