bootstrap-icons vs feather-icons vs font-awesome vs heroicons vs ionicons vs line-awesome vs material-icons
Icon Libraries for Web Development
bootstrap-iconsfeather-iconsfont-awesomeheroiconsioniconsline-awesomematerial-iconsSimilar Packages:

Icon Libraries for Web Development

Icon libraries provide developers with a collection of scalable vector icons that can be easily integrated into web applications. They enhance user interfaces by offering visual cues and improving the overall aesthetic of web pages. Each library has its unique design philosophy, icon styles, and usage scenarios, catering to different project needs and developer preferences.

Npm Package Weekly Downloads Trend

3 Years

Github Stars Ranking

Stat Detail

Package
Downloads
Stars
Size
Issues
Publish
License
bootstrap-icons07,9532.99 MB473a year agoMIT
feather-icons025,868625 kB5082 years agoMIT
font-awesome076,492-3229 years ago(OFL-1.1 AND MIT)
heroicons023,439700 kB3a year agoMIT
ionicons018,0286.22 MB689 months agoMIT
line-awesome01,299-476 years agoMIT
material-icons03642.23 MB13a year agoApache-2.0

Feature Comparison: bootstrap-icons vs feather-icons vs font-awesome vs heroicons vs ionicons vs line-awesome vs material-icons

Design Philosophy

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons are designed to complement the Bootstrap framework, featuring a simple and clean aesthetic that aligns with Bootstrap's UI components. They are designed to be easily recognizable and functional, making them suitable for a wide range of applications.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons embrace a minimalist design philosophy, focusing on simplicity and clarity. Each icon is crafted with a consistent stroke width, making them ideal for modern web applications that prioritize a clean and elegant look.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome offers a diverse range of icon styles, including solid, regular, and light. Its design philosophy emphasizes versatility and comprehensiveness, catering to various use cases from simple UI elements to complex applications.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons are crafted with a focus on usability and aesthetics, providing a balanced mix of outline and solid icons. Their design is tailored for modern web applications, ensuring they look great in any context, especially with Tailwind CSS.

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons are designed specifically for mobile applications, featuring a rounded and friendly aesthetic. Their design is optimized for touch interfaces, making them perfect for mobile-first projects.

  • line-awesome:

    Line Awesome focuses on a clean, line-based aesthetic, providing a lightweight alternative to traditional icon sets. Its design philosophy emphasizes minimalism, making it suitable for projects that require a subtle touch of elegance.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons are designed according to Google's Material Design guidelines, ensuring a consistent look and feel across applications. Their design philosophy emphasizes clarity and usability, making them ideal for user interfaces.

Customization

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons can be easily customized using CSS, allowing developers to change colors, sizes, and other properties to fit their design needs. This flexibility makes them suitable for various projects without losing their integrity.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons are highly customizable due to their SVG format, allowing developers to change stroke widths, colors, and sizes effortlessly. This makes them adaptable to different design requirements and personal preferences.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome provides extensive customization options, including the ability to animate icons and adjust their appearance using CSS. Its vast library allows for a high degree of personalization, making it a versatile choice for developers.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons are available in both outline and solid styles, providing flexibility in customization. Developers can easily adjust sizes and colors using CSS or inline styles, ensuring they fit seamlessly into any design.

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons are customizable through CSS and provide various sizes and styles, making them suitable for different screen resolutions and devices. Their design allows for easy integration into mobile applications.

  • line-awesome:

    Line Awesome icons can be easily styled using CSS, allowing for adjustments in size, color, and other properties. This flexibility makes them a great choice for projects that require a clean and modern look.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons can be customized through CSS, allowing developers to change colors and sizes to match their application's design. Their integration with Material Design ensures consistency across UI components.

Performance

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons are lightweight and optimized for performance, ensuring quick loading times and minimal impact on overall application speed. Their SVG format contributes to efficient rendering in web browsers.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons are designed to be lightweight, with a small file size that ensures fast loading times. Their SVG nature allows for quick rendering, making them ideal for performance-sensitive applications.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome can be heavier than other icon libraries due to its extensive collection of icons. However, it offers options to include only the icons you need, which can help optimize performance in larger applications.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons are optimized for performance, with a focus on minimal file size and efficient rendering. They are designed to load quickly, ensuring a smooth user experience in modern web applications.

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons are lightweight and designed for mobile performance, ensuring quick loading times and smooth interactions on mobile devices. Their SVG format enhances rendering speed and efficiency.

  • line-awesome:

    Line Awesome is designed to be lightweight, ensuring minimal impact on performance. Its simple line-based design allows for quick rendering, making it suitable for performance-sensitive applications.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons are optimized for performance, with a focus on fast loading times and efficient rendering. Their integration with Material Design principles ensures a smooth user experience across applications.

Community and Support

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons benefit from the extensive Bootstrap community, providing a wealth of resources, tutorials, and support for developers. This community-driven approach ensures continuous improvement and updates.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons have a growing community of users and contributors, offering support through documentation and community forums. Their open-source nature encourages collaboration and enhancements.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome has a large and active community, providing extensive documentation, tutorials, and support. Its popularity ensures that developers can find help and resources easily.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons are supported by the Tailwind CSS community, which offers resources and documentation for integration. The community is active and provides support for developers using Tailwind in their projects.

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons have a supportive community, especially among Ionic Framework users. Resources and documentation are readily available, making it easier for developers to find help and examples.

  • line-awesome:

    Line Awesome is supported by a growing community, offering documentation and resources for developers. Its open-source nature encourages contributions and improvements from users.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons benefit from Google's extensive support and documentation, ensuring that developers have access to resources and guidance for integration into their applications.

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

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Choose Bootstrap Icons if you are already using the Bootstrap framework and want a consistent icon set that integrates seamlessly with Bootstrap components. It offers a straightforward implementation for Bootstrap users.

  • feather-icons:

    Select Feather Icons for a lightweight and minimalist design approach. Ideal for projects that prioritize simplicity and elegance, Feather Icons are easily customizable and perfect for modern web applications.

  • font-awesome:

    Opt for Font Awesome if you need a comprehensive icon library with a vast selection of icons and additional features like icon animations and social media icons. It's great for projects requiring a diverse range of icons.

  • heroicons:

    Choose Heroicons if you are building applications with Tailwind CSS or need a set of beautifully crafted icons that follow a consistent design style. Heroicons are particularly suited for modern web applications with a focus on UI/UX.

  • ionicons:

    Select Ionicons for mobile-first applications, especially if you are developing with Ionic Framework. Ionicons provides a rich set of icons optimized for mobile interfaces, ensuring a cohesive look across platforms.

  • line-awesome:

    Choose Line Awesome if you prefer a line-style icon set that is lightweight and easy to integrate. It’s a great alternative to Font Awesome for projects that require a more minimalist aesthetic.

  • material-icons:

    Opt for Material Icons if you are following Google's Material Design guidelines. This library provides a wide range of icons that are designed to work well with Material Design principles, ensuring consistency in your UI.

README for bootstrap-icons

Bootstrap logo

Bootstrap Icons

Official open source SVG icon library for Bootstrap with over 2,000 icons.
Explore Bootstrap Icons »

Bootstrap · Themes · Blog

Bootstrap Icons preview

Install

Bootstrap Icons are packaged up and published to npm. We only include the processed SVGs in this package—it's up to you and your team to implement. Read our docs for usage instructions.

npm i bootstrap-icons

For those using Packagist, you can also install Bootstrap Icons via Composer:

composer require twbs/bootstrap-icons

Also available in Figma.

Usage

Depending on your setup, you can include Bootstrap Icons in a handful of ways.

  • Copy-paste SVGs as embedded HTML
  • Reference via <img> element
  • Use the SVG sprite
  • Include via CSS

See the docs for more information.

Development

Build Status npm version

Clone the repo, install dependencies, and start the Hugo server locally.

git clone https://github.com/twbs/icons/
cd icons
npm i
npm start

Then open http://localhost:4000 in your browser.

npm scripts

Here are some key scripts you'll use during development. Be sure to look to our package.json or npm run output for a complete list of scripts.

ScriptDescription
startAlias for running docs-serve
docs-serveStarts a local Hugo server
pagesGenerates permalink pages for each icon with template Markdown
iconsProcesses and optimizes SVGs in icons directory, generates fonts and sprite

Adding SVGs

Icons are typically only added by @mdo, but exceptions can be made. New glyphs are designed in Figma first on a 16x16px grid, then exported as flattened SVGs with fill (no stroke). Once a new SVG icon has been added to the icons directory, we use an npm script to:

  1. Optimize our SVGs with SVGO.
  2. Modify the SVGs source code, removing all attributes before setting new attributes and values in our preferred order.

Use npm run icons to run the script, run npm run pages to build permalink pages, complete those pages, and, finally, commit the results in a new branch for updating.

Warning: Please exclude any auto-generated files, like font/** and bootstrap-icons.svg from your branch because they cause conflicts, and we generally update the dist files before a release.

Publishing

Documentation is published automatically when a new Git tag is published. See our GitHub Actions and package.json for more information.

License

MIT

Author

@mdo