ionicons vs font-awesome vs bootstrap-icons vs material-icons vs boxicons vs feather-icons vs heroicons vs line-awesome vs octicons
Icon Libraries for Web Development Comparison
1 Year
ioniconsfont-awesomebootstrap-iconsmaterial-iconsboxiconsfeather-iconsheroiconsline-awesomeocticonsSimilar Packages:
What's Icon Libraries for Web Development?

Icon libraries provide a collection of scalable vector icons that can be easily integrated into web projects. They enhance user interfaces by offering visual representations of actions, objects, and concepts, making applications more intuitive and engaging. Each library has its own design style, usage guidelines, and features, catering to different aesthetic preferences and project requirements.

Package Weekly Downloads Trend
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Package
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License
ionicons1,623,46617,7026.44 MB29210 months agoMIT
font-awesome827,32074,728-4,1298 years ago(OFL-1.1 AND MIT)
bootstrap-icons480,5057,5492.93 MB451a year agoMIT
material-icons210,9983292.23 MB1121 days agoApache-2.0
boxicons137,0363,0363.75 MB844-(CC-BY-4.0 OR OFL-1.1 OR MIT)
feather-icons113,96725,290625 kB48710 months agoMIT
heroicons41,09922,087700 kB54 months agoMIT
line-awesome30,6541,266-455 years agoMIT
octicons10,6688,439-106 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: ionicons vs font-awesome vs bootstrap-icons vs material-icons vs boxicons vs feather-icons vs heroicons vs line-awesome vs octicons

Design Style

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons feature a vibrant and modern design, optimized for both web and mobile applications, with a focus on usability and clarity.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome provides a diverse range of icons with various styles, including solid, regular, and light, catering to different design needs.

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons feature a flat design that aligns with Bootstrap's overall aesthetic, providing a cohesive look for Bootstrap-based projects.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons follow Google’s Material Design guidelines, providing a consistent and recognizable design language across applications.

  • boxicons:

    Boxicons offer both solid and outline styles, allowing for flexibility in design while maintaining a modern and clean appearance.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons are characterized by their thin lines and minimalist design, making them suitable for projects that prioritize simplicity and elegance.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons are designed with a focus on simplicity and clarity, featuring a balanced and modern aesthetic that fits well with Tailwind CSS.

  • line-awesome:

    Line Awesome offers a sleek line-based design that is modern and stylish, suitable for contemporary web applications.

  • octicons:

    Octicons are designed specifically for GitHub and related projects, featuring a clean and modern style that enhances usability.

Usage Scenario

  • ionicons:

    Best used in mobile and hybrid applications, especially those built with Ionic, ensuring a consistent look across platforms.

  • font-awesome:

    Suitable for a wide range of applications, from simple websites to complex web applications, due to its extensive icon library.

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Best used in Bootstrap projects where integration with Bootstrap components is needed, providing a seamless user experience.

  • material-icons:

    Best suited for applications that follow Material Design principles, ensuring consistency with Google’s design language.

  • boxicons:

    Ideal for web applications that require a mix of solid and outline icons for different UI elements, enhancing visual hierarchy.

  • feather-icons:

    Great for projects that prioritize lightweight assets and a minimalist aesthetic, such as personal blogs or portfolios.

  • heroicons:

    Perfect for Tailwind CSS projects, providing icons that align with the design framework and enhance the overall user interface.

  • line-awesome:

    Ideal for modern web applications that require a clean and stylish icon set without heavy visual clutter.

  • octicons:

    Perfect for GitHub-related projects or applications that require a modern, clean icon set tailored for web interfaces.

Extensibility

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons can be customized to fit various design needs, with options for different sizes and colors to match application themes.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome offers extensive customization options, including the ability to use SVGs and customize styles through CSS, making it highly flexible.

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons can be easily customized with CSS to match the project's color scheme and size requirements, enhancing flexibility.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons can be customized through CSS and are designed to be easily scalable, fitting various screen sizes and resolutions.

  • boxicons:

    Boxicons allow for easy customization and can be combined with other icon sets for a unique look, providing versatility in design.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons are highly customizable, allowing developers to change stroke width and color to fit their design needs.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons can be easily styled and customized to fit within Tailwind CSS projects, allowing for seamless integration and design consistency.

  • line-awesome:

    Line Awesome icons can be easily styled with CSS, allowing for a high degree of customization to fit specific design requirements.

  • octicons:

    Octicons can be customized to fit different themes and styles, making them adaptable for various web applications.

Performance

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons are designed with performance in mind, providing a rich icon set without compromising load times.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome offers both SVG and web font options, allowing developers to choose the best method for performance based on their needs.

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons are lightweight and optimized for performance, ensuring fast loading times in web applications.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons are optimized for performance, ensuring quick loading times and efficient rendering in web applications.

  • boxicons:

    Boxicons are designed to be lightweight, ensuring minimal impact on page load times while providing a rich set of icons.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons are extremely lightweight, making them ideal for performance-sensitive applications where load times are critical.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons are optimized for performance, ensuring that they load quickly and do not negatively impact application speed.

  • line-awesome:

    Line Awesome is lightweight, ensuring that it does not slow down web applications while providing a modern icon set.

  • octicons:

    Octicons are designed to be lightweight and efficient, ensuring that they load quickly and enhance user experience without delays.

Community and Support

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons has a dedicated community, especially among Ionic developers, providing support and resources for mobile application development.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome boasts a large community and extensive documentation, making it easy to find support and resources for implementation.

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons benefit from the extensive Bootstrap community, providing ample resources and support for developers.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons benefit from Google's extensive resources and community support, making it easy to find help and documentation.

  • boxicons:

    Boxicons has a growing community, with resources available for integration and customization, although smaller than some other libraries.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons has a supportive community, with documentation and resources available for developers looking to implement the icons effectively.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons is supported by the Tailwind CSS community, providing resources and examples for effective use in Tailwind projects.

  • line-awesome:

    Line Awesome has a smaller community but offers sufficient documentation and resources for developers to get started easily.

  • octicons:

    Octicons are supported by the GitHub community, providing ample resources and documentation for developers working on GitHub-related projects.

How to Choose: ionicons vs font-awesome vs bootstrap-icons vs material-icons vs boxicons vs feather-icons vs heroicons vs line-awesome vs octicons
  • ionicons:

    Choose Ionicons if you are building an Ionic application, as it provides a wide range of high-quality icons specifically designed for mobile and web applications.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome is a great choice if you require a comprehensive icon library with extensive options, including social media icons and brand logos, along with support for SVG and web fonts.

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Choose Bootstrap Icons if you are already using Bootstrap in your project, as it seamlessly integrates with Bootstrap's styling and components, providing a consistent look and feel.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons are ideal for projects that follow Material Design principles, offering a wide range of icons that are consistent with Google’s design guidelines.

  • boxicons:

    Opt for Boxicons if you need a versatile icon set that offers both solid and outline styles, along with a focus on simplicity and modern design, suitable for various web applications.

  • feather-icons:

    Select Feather Icons for a minimalist approach with a focus on simplicity and elegance. Ideal for projects that prioritize clean design and lightweight assets.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons is perfect for Tailwind CSS users, offering beautifully crafted icons that align with the Tailwind design philosophy, making it easy to maintain a consistent aesthetic.

  • line-awesome:

    Line Awesome is a good option for projects that require a line-style icon set, providing a modern alternative to Font Awesome with a focus on simplicity and elegance.

  • octicons:

    Opt for Octicons if you are developing GitHub-related applications or want a clean, modern icon set that is specifically designed for web interfaces.

README for ionicons

Ionicons

Ionicons is a completely open-source icon set with 1,300 icons crafted for web, iOS, Android, and desktop apps. Ionicons was built for Ionic Framework, so icons have both Material Design and iOS versions.

Note: All brand icons are trademarks of their respective owners. The use of these trademarks does not indicate endorsement of the trademark holder by Ionic, nor vice versa.

We intend for this icon pack to be used with Ionic, but it’s by no means limited to it. Use them wherever you see fit, personal or commercial. They are free to use and licensed under MIT.

Contributing

Thanks for your interest in contributing! Read up on our guidelines for contributing and then look through our issues with a help wanted label.

Using the Web Component

The Ionicons Web Component is an easy and performant way to use Ionicons in your app. The component will dynamically load an SVG for each icon, so your app is only requesting the icons that you need.

Also note that only visible icons are loaded, and icons which are "below the fold" and hidden from the user's view do not make fetch requests for the svg resource.

Installation

If you're using Ionic Framework, Ionicons is packaged by default, so no installation is necessary. Want to use Ionicons without Ionic Framework? Place the following <script> near the end of your page, right before the closing tag, to enable them.

<script src="https://unpkg.com/ionicons@latest/dist/ionicons.js"></script>

Basic usage

To use a built-in icon from the Ionicons package, populate the name attribute on the ion-icon component:

<ion-icon name="heart"></ion-icon>

Custom icons

To use a custom SVG, provide its url in the src attribute to request the external SVG file. The src attribute works the same as <img src="..."> in that the url must be accessible from the webpage that's making a request for the image. Additionally, the external file can only be a valid svg and does not allow scripts or events within the svg element.

<ion-icon src="/path/to/external/file.svg"></ion-icon>

Variants

Each app icon in Ionicons has a filled, outline and sharp variant. These different variants are provided to make your app feel native to a variety of platforms. The filled variant uses the default name without a suffix. Note: Logo icons do not have outline or sharp variants.

<ion-icon name="heart"></ion-icon> <!--filled-->
<ion-icon name="heart-outline"></ion-icon> <!--outline-->
<ion-icon name="heart-sharp"></ion-icon> <!--sharp-->

Platform specificity

When using icons in Ionic Framework you can specify different icons per platform. Use the md and ios attributes and provide the platform specific icon/variant name.

<ion-icon ios="heart-outline" md="heart-sharp"></ion-icon>

Size

To specify the icon size, you can use the size attribute for our pre-defined font sizes.

<ion-icon size="small"></ion-icon>
<ion-icon size="large"></ion-icon>

Or you can set a specific size by applying the font-size CSS property on the ion-icon component. It's recommended to use pixel sizes that are a multiple of 8 (8, 16, 32, 64, etc.)

ion-icon {
  font-size: 64px;
}

Color

Specify the icon color by applying the color CSS property on the ion-icon component.

ion-icon {
  color: blue;
}

Stroke width

When using an outline icon variant it is possible to adjust the stroke width, for improved visual balance relative to the icon's size or relative to the width of adjacent text. You can set a specific size by applying the --ionicon-stroke-width CSS custom property to the ion-icon component. The default value is 32px.

<ion-icon name="heart-outline"></ion-icon>
ion-icon {
  --ionicon-stroke-width: 16px;
}

Migrating from v4

See the 5.0 release notes for a list of icon deletions/renames.

License

Ionicons is licensed under the MIT license.

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