font-awesome vs bootstrap-icons vs ionicons vs material-icons vs feather-icons vs heroicons vs line-awesome
Icon Libraries for Web Development Comparison
1 Year
font-awesomebootstrap-iconsioniconsmaterial-iconsfeather-iconsheroiconsline-awesomeSimilar Packages:
What's 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.

Package Weekly Downloads Trend
Github Stars Ranking
Stat Detail
Package
Downloads
Stars
Size
Issues
Publish
License
font-awesome844,36975,191-4,1619 years ago(OFL-1.1 AND MIT)
bootstrap-icons454,1147,6192.99 MB41715 hours agoMIT
ionicons316,75717,7684.69 MB434 days agoMIT
material-icons206,2503412.23 MB123 months agoApache-2.0
feather-icons110,29825,429625 kB491a year agoMIT
heroicons38,08922,370700 kB96 months agoMIT
line-awesome30,2971,271-455 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: font-awesome vs bootstrap-icons vs ionicons vs material-icons vs feather-icons vs heroicons vs line-awesome

Design Philosophy

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Customization

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Performance

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Community and Support

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

README for font-awesome

Font Awesome v4.7.0

The iconic font and CSS framework

Font Awesome is a full suite of 675 pictographic icons for easy scalable vector graphics on websites, created and maintained by Dave Gandy. Stay up to date with the latest release and announcements on Twitter: @fontawesome.

Get started at http://fontawesome.io!

License

  • The Font Awesome font is licensed under the SIL OFL 1.1:
    • http://scripts.sil.org/OFL
  • Font Awesome CSS, LESS, and Sass files are licensed under the MIT License:
    • https://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html
  • The Font Awesome documentation is licensed under the CC BY 3.0 License:
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
  • Attribution is no longer required as of Font Awesome 3.0, but much appreciated:
    • Font Awesome by Dave Gandy - http://fontawesome.io
  • Full details: http://fontawesome.io/license/

Changelog

Contributing

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

Versioning

Font Awesome will be maintained under the Semantic Versioning guidelines as much as possible. Releases will be numbered with the following format:

<major>.<minor>.<patch>

And constructed with the following guidelines:

  • Breaking backward compatibility bumps the major (and resets the minor and patch)
  • New additions, including new icons, without breaking backward compatibility bumps the minor (and resets the patch)
  • Bug fixes, changes to brand logos, and misc changes bumps the patch

For more information on SemVer, please visit http://semver.org.

Author

  • Email: dave@fontawesome.io
  • Twitter: http://twitter.com/davegandy
  • GitHub: https://github.com/davegandy

Component

To include as a component, just run

$ component install FortAwesome/Font-Awesome

Or add

"FortAwesome/Font-Awesome": "*"

to the dependencies in your component.json.

Hacking on Font Awesome

Before you can build the project, you must first have the following installed:

From the root of the repository, install the tools used to develop.

$ bundle install
$ npm install

Build the project and documentation:

$ bundle exec jekyll build

Or serve it on a local server on http://localhost:7998/Font-Awesome/:

$ bundle exec jekyll -w serve