bootstrap-icons vs feather-icons vs font-awesome vs heroicons vs ionicons vs material-icons vs react-icons
Icon Libraries for Web Development
bootstrap-iconsfeather-iconsfont-awesomeheroiconsioniconsmaterial-iconsreact-iconsSimilar Packages:

Icon Libraries for Web Development

Icon libraries are collections of scalable vector graphics (SVG) or font-based icons that can be easily integrated into web applications. They provide a consistent visual language and enhance user interfaces by adding visual cues, improving usability, and offering aesthetic appeal. Each library has its unique design philosophy, icon styles, and usage scenarios, making them suitable for different types of projects and design systems.

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3 Years

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Package
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License
bootstrap-icons07,9202.99 MB47010 months agoMIT
feather-icons025,830625 kB5082 years agoMIT
font-awesome076,380-3159 years ago(OFL-1.1 AND MIT)
heroicons023,370700 kB1a year agoMIT
ionicons017,9966.22 MB628 months agoMIT
material-icons03592.23 MB13a year agoApache-2.0
react-icons012,50386.2 MB233a year agoMIT

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

Design Consistency

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons maintain a consistent design language that aligns with Bootstrap's UI components, ensuring a cohesive look across your application.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons are designed with a minimalist aesthetic, providing a uniform style that is both modern and elegant, suitable for various applications.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome offers a diverse range of icons with a consistent style, making it easy to create a unified visual experience across different platforms.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons provide a consistent design that complements Tailwind CSS, ensuring that icons fit seamlessly into the overall design system.

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons have a cohesive design that is tailored for mobile interfaces, ensuring that icons are visually appealing and functional on small screens.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons are designed according to Material Design principles, providing a consistent look and feel that enhances user experience across applications.

  • react-icons:

    React Icons allow you to mix and match icons from different libraries while maintaining a consistent design approach within your React application.

Customization

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons can be styled using CSS, allowing developers to change colors, sizes, and other properties easily to fit their design needs.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons are highly customizable, enabling developers to adjust stroke widths, colors, and sizes directly in the SVG, providing flexibility in design.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome offers various customization options, including icon animations and layering, allowing for dynamic and engaging user interfaces.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons can be easily customized with Tailwind CSS classes, making it simple to adapt their appearance to match your design system.

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons allow for customization through CSS variables, enabling developers to change colors and sizes without modifying the source files.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons can be customized using CSS, and they support different sizes and color variations, making them versatile for various applications.

  • react-icons:

    React Icons can be styled using inline styles or CSS classes, allowing for easy customization within React components.

Performance

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons are lightweight and optimized for performance, ensuring minimal impact on load times when integrated into Bootstrap projects.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons are designed to be lightweight, which helps improve loading times and overall performance of web applications.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome can be heavier due to its extensive library, but using only the required icons can mitigate performance issues.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons are optimized for performance and can be easily included as SVGs, ensuring fast loading times in web applications.

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons are designed with performance in mind, making them suitable for mobile applications where load speed is crucial.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons are optimized for web performance, and their font-based approach allows for quick loading and rendering in web applications.

  • react-icons:

    React Icons allows for tree-shaking, meaning you can import only the icons you need, which helps reduce bundle size and improve performance.

Integration

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Bootstrap Icons integrate seamlessly with Bootstrap projects, making it easy to add icons without additional setup.

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons can be easily integrated into any project, requiring minimal setup and providing a straightforward way to include icons.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome offers various integration methods, including CDN, npm packages, and SVG, making it versatile for different project setups.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons are designed to work perfectly with Tailwind CSS, providing easy integration for developers using this framework.

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons are optimized for use with the Ionic Framework, making them ideal for mobile app development and hybrid applications.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons can be integrated easily into any web project, especially those following Material Design principles, using CDN or npm.

  • react-icons:

    React Icons is specifically designed for React applications, allowing for easy and efficient icon integration within React components.

Community and Support

  • bootstrap-icons:

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

  • feather-icons:

    Feather Icons have a growing community and good documentation, making it easy for developers to find help and resources.

  • font-awesome:

    Font Awesome has a vast community and extensive documentation, offering numerous resources, tutorials, and support channels for developers.

  • heroicons:

    Heroicons are supported by the Tailwind CSS community, which provides documentation and resources for effective usage within Tailwind projects.

  • ionicons:

    Ionicons have a dedicated community, especially among Ionic developers, ensuring good support and resources for mobile application development.

  • material-icons:

    Material Icons are widely used in the web development community, providing extensive documentation and support for developers following Material Design guidelines.

  • react-icons:

    React Icons has a supportive community within the React ecosystem, with ample documentation and resources to assist developers.

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

  • bootstrap-icons:

    Choose Bootstrap Icons if you are already using Bootstrap in your project and want a consistent icon set that matches the Bootstrap design language. They are easy to integrate and provide a straightforward approach to adding icons without additional dependencies.

  • feather-icons:

    Select Feather Icons for a lightweight and minimalist design approach. They are perfect for projects that require a clean aesthetic and are easily customizable with stroke width adjustments. Ideal for modern web applications that prioritize simplicity and clarity.

  • font-awesome:

    Opt for Font Awesome if you need a comprehensive icon library with a vast collection of icons and additional features like icon animations and layering. It is suitable for projects that require a wide variety of icons and a robust ecosystem, including support for both SVG and web fonts.

  • heroicons:

    Use Heroicons if you are building a Tailwind CSS project or prefer a set of beautifully crafted icons that follow a modern design aesthetic. They are designed to work seamlessly with Tailwind and provide both outline and solid styles, making them versatile for different UI contexts.

  • ionicons:

    Choose Ionicons for mobile-first applications, especially if you are developing with Ionic Framework. Ionicons offers a rich set of icons that are optimized for mobile interfaces, making it a great choice for hybrid mobile apps and responsive web applications.

  • material-icons:

    Select Material Icons if you are following Material Design guidelines. They provide a consistent set of icons that align with Google's design philosophy, making them ideal for applications that prioritize a clean, modern look and feel.

  • react-icons:

    Use React Icons if you are working within a React environment and want a simple way to include icons from various libraries. React Icons allows you to import only the icons you need, reducing bundle size and improving performance.

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