feather-icons, font-awesome, material-design-icons, and react-icons are popular npm packages that provide scalable vector icons for web applications. Each offers a distinct design language, integration approach, and technical trade-offs. feather-icons delivers a lightweight, minimalist set of 280+ icons with a consistent stroke-based aesthetic. font-awesome provides a vast, mature icon system with multiple styles (solid, regular, brands) and extensive customization options. material-design-icons implements Google’s Material Design specification with official icon assets across various categories. react-icons is not an icon set itself but a unified React component library that bundles dozens of popular icon sets—including Feather, Font Awesome, and Material—into tree-shakable, SVG-based components.
Choosing the right icon solution affects your app’s performance, maintainability, and visual consistency. Let’s compare how these four packages handle real-world frontend challenges.
feather-icons provides raw SVG strings. You must manually render them in React.
// feather-icons: Manual SVG rendering
import { home } from 'feather-icons';
function HomeIcon() {
return <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: home.toSvg() }} />;
}
font-awesome offers two paths: CSS fonts (global styles) or SVG with JavaScript (component-based).
// font-awesome: CSS method (adds global styles)
import '@fortawesome/fontawesome-free/css/all.css';
function App() {
return <i className="fas fa-home"></i>;
}
// font-awesome: SVG + JS method (React components)
import { FontAwesomeIcon } from '@fortawesome/react-fontawesome';
import { faHome } from '@fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons';
function App() {
return <FontAwesomeIcon icon={faHome} />;
}
material-design-icons is deprecated — but historically shipped PNGs, SVGs, and font files in inconsistent formats. No official React support.
// material-design-icons: Not recommended (deprecated)
// Example shows why it's problematic
import 'material-design-icons/iconfont/material-icons.css';
function App() {
// Works but uses outdated, unoptimized font
return <i className="material-icons">home</i>;
}
react-icons gives you ready-to-use React components for dozens of icon sets.
// react-icons: Direct component usage
import { FiHome } from 'react-icons/fi'; // Feather
import { FaHome } from 'react-icons/fa'; // Font Awesome
import { MdHome } from 'react-icons/md'; // Material
function App() {
return <FiHome />;
}
feather-icons is tiny (~30KB minified) and fully tree-shakable if you import individual icons.
// Only imports the 'home' icon
import { home } from 'feather-icons';
font-awesome can be lean or bloated depending on usage. The SVG + JS method supports tree shaking when you import specific icons.
// Tree-shaken: only faHome included
import { faHome } from '@fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons';
But the CSS method loads the entire icon font (~50KB+), regardless of usage.
material-design-icons is extremely heavy (~30MB installed!) because it includes every format and density. Even importing one SVG pulls in megabytes of unused assets.
// Avoid: pulls in massive directory structure
import home from 'material-design-icons/action/svg/production/ic_home_24px.svg';
react-icons is fully tree-shakable. Each icon is a separate export, so your bundle only includes what you use.
// Only FiHome is bundled
import { FiHome } from 'react-icons/fi';
feather-icons has one consistent style: thin, 2px stroke, rounded terminals. No filled variants.
// Custom color and size via SVG attributes
const svg = home.toSvg({
width: 24,
height: 24,
color: 'blue'
});
font-awesome offers five styles (solid, regular, light, duotone, brands) with thousands of icons. Highly customizable via props or CSS.
// Font Awesome SVG component customization
<FontAwesomeIcon
icon={faHome}
size="lg"
color="red"
spin
/>
material-design-icons follows Google’s Material spec but the npm package contains outdated versions that don’t match current guidelines.
react-icons doesn’t enforce a style — it mirrors the original design of each source library. You get Feather’s minimalism, FA’s variety, or Material’s geometric shapes as-is.
// Same API, different aesthetics
<FiHome /> {/* Feather */}
<FaHome /> {/* Font Awesome solid */}
<MdHome /> {/* Material */}
feather-icons: Actively maintained. Last npm release in 2023.
font-awesome: Actively maintained. Frequent updates across all packages.
material-design-icons: Deprecated. The npm package page states: "This package is no longer maintained. Please use the official Material Icons resources." Do not use in new projects.
react-icons: Actively maintained. Regularly updates underlying icon sets.
You want clean, performant icons without fuss.
react-icons with Feather (Fi*) or Material (Md*) iconsimport { FiMenu, FiSearch } from 'react-icons/fi';
function Header() {
return (
<header>
<FiMenu />
<FiSearch />
</header>
);
}
You need recognizable brand icons (Twitter, GitHub) plus hundreds of UI icons in multiple styles.
font-awesome with SVG + JS methodimport { FontAwesomeIcon } from '@fortawesome/react-fontawesome';
import { faTwitter, faGithub } from '@fortawesome/free-brands-svg-icons';
import { faChartLine } from '@fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons';
function Dashboard() {
return (
<div>
<FontAwesomeIcon icon={faTwitter} />
<FontAwesomeIcon icon={faChartLine} />
</div>
);
}
You need 5–10 simple icons and care about Lighthouse scores.
feather-icons with inline SVG// Pre-render SVG strings at build time
const menuIcon = menu.toSvg({ width: 20, height: 20 });
function MobileNav() {
return <div dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{ __html: menuIcon }} />;
}
You inherited a project using material-design-icons npm package.
react-icons// Replace this deprecated import:
// import 'material-design-icons/iconfont/material-icons.css';
// With react-icons:
import { MdHome } from 'react-icons/md';
// Or with official CDN:
// <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/icon?family=Material+Icons" rel="stylesheet">
// <i class="material-icons">home</i>
| Package | Integration | Tree Shaking | Bundle Size | Maintenance | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
feather-icons | Raw SVG strings | ✅ | Very Small | ✅ Active | Minimalist apps, max performance |
font-awesome | CSS or SVG comps | ✅ (SVG only) | Medium-Large | ✅ Active | Enterprise apps, brand icons |
material-design-icons | Fonts/SVG/PNG | ❌ | Huge | ❌ Deprecated | Avoid in new projects |
react-icons | React components | ✅ | Small* | ✅ Active | React apps needing flexibility |
* Actual size depends on which icon sets you import
react-icons. It’s the safest, most flexible choice with zero-config SVG components and full tree shaking.feather-icons and inline the SVGs directly.font-awesome’s SVG + JS method.material-design-icons from npm — it’s deprecated and inefficient. Use Google’s official CDN or react-icons instead.The right choice balances design needs, performance constraints, and maintenance reality — not just icon count.
Choose feather-icons if you need a small, consistent set of clean, outline-style icons with minimal bundle impact and no external dependencies. It’s ideal for projects prioritizing performance and simplicity over variety, especially when you don’t require filled or multi-style icons. Since it exports raw SVG strings, you’ll need to handle rendering yourself in React unless paired with a wrapper.
Choose font-awesome if your project demands a massive library of icons across multiple visual styles (solid, regular, light, duotone, brands) and you’re comfortable with either CSS-based font loading or the heavier SVG-with-JS implementation. It’s well-suited for enterprise applications where brand recognition and icon diversity outweigh bundle size concerns, but requires careful setup to avoid loading unused icons.
Avoid using the material-design-icons npm package in new projects—it’s officially deprecated and unmaintained. While it once provided Google’s official Material icons, the package hasn’t been updated since 2018 and includes outdated, inconsistently formatted assets. Instead, use the official Material Icons font via CDN or consume SVGs directly from Google’s repository.
Choose react-icons if you’re building a React application and want easy access to multiple icon libraries through a consistent, tree-shakable component API. It eliminates font-loading issues by rendering pure SVGs and supports on-demand imports, making it ideal for projects that might switch design systems or need icons from different families without managing multiple integration strategies.
Feather is a collection of simply beautiful open-source icons. Each icon is designed on a 24x24 grid with an emphasis on simplicity, consistency, and flexibility.
npm install feather-icons
Start with this CodePen Template to begin prototyping with Feather in the browser.
Or copy and paste the following code snippet into a blank html file.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<title></title>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/feather-icons"></script>
<body>
<!-- example icon -->
<i data-feather="circle"></i>
<script>
feather.replace();
</script>
</body>
</html>
At its core, Feather is a collection of SVG files. This means that you can use Feather icons in all the same ways you can use SVGs (e.g. img, background-image, inline, object, embed, iframe). Here's a helpful article detailing the many ways SVGs can be used on the web: SVG on the Web – Implementation Options
The following are additional ways you can use Feather.
[!NOTE] If you intend to use Feather with a CDN, you can skip this installation step.
Install with npm.
npm install feather-icons --save
Or just copy feather.js or feather.min.js into your project directory. You don't need both feather.js and feather.min.js.
Include feather.js or feather.min.js with a <script> tag:
<script src="path/to/dist/feather.js"></script>
[!NOTE] >
feather.jsandfeather.min.jsare located in thedistdirectory of the npm package.
Or load the script from a CDN provider:
<!-- choose one -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/feather-icons"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/feather-icons/dist/feather.min.js"></script>
After including the script, feather will be available as a global variable.
To use an icon on your page, add a data-feather attribute with the icon name to an element:
<i data-feather="circle"></i>
See the complete list of icons at feathericons.com.
Call the feather.replace() method:
<script>
feather.replace();
</script>
All elements that have a data-feather attribute will be replaced with SVG markup corresponding to their data-feather attribute value. See the API Reference for more information about feather.replace().
Install with npm:
npm install feather-icons --save
const feather = require('feather-icons');
feather.icons.x;
// {
// name: 'x',
// contents: '<line ... /><line ... />`,
// tags: ['cancel', 'close', 'delete', 'remove'],
// attrs: {
// class: 'feather feather-x',
// xmlns: 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg',
// width: 24,
// height: 24,
// viewBox: '0 0 24 24',
// fill: 'none',
// stroke: 'currentColor',
// 'stroke-width': 2,
// 'stroke-linecap': 'round',
// 'stroke-linejoin': 'round',
// },
// toSvg: [Function],
// }
feather.icons.x.toSvg();
// <svg class="feather feather-x" ...><line ... /><line ... /></svg>
feather.icons.x.toSvg({ class: 'foo bar', 'stroke-width': 1, color: 'red' });
// <svg class="feather feather-x foo bar" stroke-width="1" color="red" ...><line ... /><line ... /></svg>
See the API Reference for more information about the available properties and methods of the feather object.
[!NOTE] If you intend to use Feather with a CDN, you can skip this installation step.
Install with npm.
npm install feather-icons --save
Or just copy feather-sprite.svg into your project directory.
Include an icon on your page with the following markup:
<svg
width="24"
height="24"
fill="none"
stroke="currentColor"
stroke-width="2"
stroke-linecap="round"
stroke-linejoin="round"
>
<use href="path/to/feather-sprite.svg#circle" />
</svg>
[!NOTE] >
circlein the above example can be replaced with any valid icon name. See the complete list of icon names at feathericons.com.
However, this markup can be simplified using a simple CSS class to avoid repetition of SVG attributes between icons:
.feather {
width: 24px;
height: 24px;
stroke: currentColor;
stroke-width: 2;
stroke-linecap: round;
stroke-linejoin: round;
fill: none;
}
<svg class="feather">
<use href="path/to/dist/feather-sprite.svg#circle" />
</svg>
Feather is available as a Figma component library. To use the components, log in to your Figma account and duplicate the file to your drafts.
feather.iconsAn object with data about every icon.
feather.icons.x;
// {
// name: 'x',
// contents: '<line ... /><line ... />',
// tags: ['cancel', 'close', 'delete', 'remove'],
// attrs: {
// class: 'feather feather-x',
// xmlns: 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg',
// width: 24,
// height: 24,
// viewBox: '0 0 24 24',
// fill: 'none',
// stroke: 'currentColor',
// 'stroke-width': 2,
// 'stroke-linecap': 'round',
// 'stroke-linejoin': 'round',
// },
// toSvg: [Function],
// }
feather.icons.x.toString();
// '<line ... /><line ... />'
[!NOTE] >
xin the above example can be replaced with any valid icon name. See the complete list of icon names at feathericons.com. Icons with multi-word names (e.g.arrow-right) cannot be accessed using dot notation (e.g.feather.icons.x). Instead, use bracket notation (e.g.feather.icons['arrow-right']).
feather.icons[name].toSvg([attrs])Returns an SVG string.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
attrs (optional) | Object | Key-value pairs in the attrs object will be mapped to HTML attributes on the <svg> tag (e.g. { foo: 'bar' } maps to foo="bar"). All default attributes on the <svg> tag can be overridden with the attrs object. |
[!NOTE] You might find these SVG attributes helpful for manipulating icons:
feather.icons.circle.toSvg();
// '<svg class="feather feather-circle" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle></svg>'
feather.icons.circle.toSvg({ 'stroke-width': 1 });
// '<svg class="feather feather-circle" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle></svg>'
feather.icons.circle.toSvg({ class: 'foo bar' });
// '<svg class="feather feather-circle foo bar" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle></svg>'
feather.replace([attrs])Replaces all elements that have a data-feather attribute with SVG markup corresponding to the element's data-feather attribute value.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
attrs (optional) | Object | Key-value pairs in the attrs object will be mapped to HTML attributes on the <svg> tag (e.g. { foo: 'bar' } maps to foo="bar"). All default attributes on the <svg> tag can be overridden with the attrs object. |
[!IMPORTANT] >
feather.replace()only works in a browser environment.
Simple usage:
<i data-feather="circle"></i>
<!--
<i> will be replaced with:
<svg class="feather feather-circle" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle></svg>
-->
<script>
feather.replace();
</script>
You can pass feather.replace() an attrs object:
<i data-feather="circle"></i>
<!--
<i> will be replaced with:
<svg class="feather feather-circle foo bar" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle></svg>
-->
<script>
feather.replace({ class: 'foo bar', 'stroke-width': 1 });
</script>
All attributes on the placeholder element (i.e. <i>) will be copied to the <svg> tag:
<i data-feather="circle" id="my-circle" class="foo bar" stroke-width="1"></i>
<!--
<i> will be replaced with:
<svg id="my-circle" class="feather feather-circle foo bar" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle></svg>
-->
<script>
feather.replace();
</script>
feather.toSvg(name, [attrs]) (DEPRECATED)[!WARNING] >
feather.toSvg()is deprecated. Please usefeather.icons[name].toSvg()instead.
Returns an SVG string.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
name | string | Icon name |
attrs (optional) | Object | Key-value pairs in the attrs object will be mapped to HTML attributes on the <svg> tag (e.g. { foo: 'bar' } maps to foo="bar"). All default attributes on the <svg> tag can be overridden with the attrs object. |
feather.toSvg('circle');
// '<svg class="feather feather-circle" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle></svg>'
feather.toSvg('circle', { 'stroke-width': 1 });
// '<svg class="feather feather-circle" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle></svg>'
feather.toSvg('circle', { class: 'foo bar' });
// '<svg class="feather feather-circle foo bar" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round"><circle cx="12" cy="12" r="10"></circle></svg>'
For more info on how to contribute please see the contribution guidelines.
Caught a mistake or want to contribute to the documentation? Edit this page on Github
Feather is licensed under the MIT License.