react-icons vs react-feather
React Icon Libraries
react-iconsreact-featherSimilar Packages:
React Icon Libraries

Icon libraries in React provide developers with a set of pre-designed icons that can be easily integrated into applications. They help streamline the design process by offering scalable vector icons that can be customized in terms of size, color, and style. Using icon libraries can enhance the visual appeal of applications and improve user experience by providing recognizable symbols for actions and content. Both react-feather and react-icons serve this purpose but differ in their design philosophy and usage.

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react-icons5,213,49312,41586.2 MB22510 months agoMIT
react-feather317,7251,9491 MB38-MIT
Feature Comparison: react-icons vs react-feather

Design Style

  • react-icons:

    react-icons offers a vast array of icons from various icon sets, including Font Awesome, Material Design, and more. This diversity allows for greater flexibility in design, catering to different aesthetic preferences and branding requirements.

  • react-feather:

    react-feather provides a collection of open-source icons that are designed with a consistent line style, making them suitable for modern and clean interfaces. The icons are lightweight and emphasize simplicity, which can help maintain a cohesive design language across your application.

Customization

  • react-icons:

    react-icons provides extensive customization options, allowing you to change the size, color, and even add custom styles to icons. It supports a wide range of icon sets, enabling developers to choose icons that best fit their design needs.

  • react-feather:

    react-feather icons can be easily customized in terms of size and color through props, allowing for straightforward integration into your design without additional styling overhead. This makes it easy to adapt icons to fit your application's theme.

Performance

  • react-icons:

    react-icons, while offering a larger selection of icons, may increase the bundle size depending on the icon sets used. However, it allows for tree-shaking, enabling developers to import only the icons they need, which can mitigate performance concerns.

  • react-feather:

    react-feather is optimized for performance due to its lightweight nature, as it includes only a small set of icons. This can lead to faster load times and improved performance, especially in applications where minimizing bundle size is crucial.

Community and Support

  • react-icons:

    react-icons boasts a larger community and extensive documentation, making it easier for developers to find support and resources. The variety of icon sets available also means that developers can find icons that suit a wide range of use cases.

  • react-feather:

    react-feather has a smaller community compared to react-icons, but it is actively maintained and has a clear focus on providing a specific set of high-quality icons. This can be beneficial for projects that prioritize simplicity and minimalism.

Ease of Use

  • react-icons:

    react-icons, while slightly more complex due to the variety of icon sets, provides a familiar interface for those who have used other icon libraries. The ability to mix and match icons from different sets can be a powerful feature for experienced developers.

  • react-feather:

    react-feather is straightforward to use, with a simple API that allows developers to quickly integrate icons into their projects. Its minimalistic approach makes it easy for newcomers to adopt without overwhelming complexity.

How to Choose: react-icons vs react-feather
  • react-feather:

    Choose react-feather if you prefer a minimalist design with a focus on simplicity and clarity. It offers a limited set of icons that are lightweight and easy to use, making it ideal for projects that require a clean aesthetic without overwhelming visual elements.

README for react-icons
React Icons

React Icons

npm

Include popular icons in your React projects easily with react-icons, which utilizes ES6 imports that allows you to include only the icons that your project is using.

Installation (for standard modern project)

yarn add react-icons
# or
npm install react-icons --save

example usage

import { FaBeer } from "react-icons/fa";

function Question() {
  return (
    <h3>
      Lets go for a <FaBeer />?
    </h3>
  );
}

View the documentation for further usage examples and how to use icons from other packages. NOTE: each Icon package has it's own subfolder under react-icons you import from.

For example, to use an icon from Material Design, your import would be: import { ICON_NAME } from 'react-icons/md';

Installation (for meteorjs, gatsbyjs, etc)

Note This option has not had a new release for some time. More info https://github.com/react-icons/react-icons/issues/593

If your project grows in size, this option is available. This method has the trade-off that it takes a long time to install the package.

yarn add @react-icons/all-files
# or
npm install @react-icons/all-files --save

example usage

import { FaBeer } from "@react-icons/all-files/fa/FaBeer";

function Question() {
  return (
    <h3>
      Lets go for a <FaBeer />?
    </h3>
  );
}

Icons

Icon LibraryLicenseVersionCount
Circum IconsMPL-2.0 license1.0.0288
Font Awesome 5CC BY 4.0 License5.15.4-3-gafecf2a1612
Font Awesome 6CC BY 4.0 License6.5.22045
Ionicons 4MIT4.6.3696
Ionicons 5MIT5.5.41332
Material Design iconsApache License Version 2.04.0.0-98-g9beae745bb4341
TypiconsCC BY-SA 3.02.1.2336
Github Octicons iconsMIT18.3.0264
FeatherMIT4.29.1287
LucideISCv5.1.0-6-g438f572e1215
Game IconsCC BY 3.012920d6565588f0512542a3cb0cdfd36a497f9104040
Weather IconsSIL OFL 1.12.0.12219
DeviconsMIT1.8.0192
Ant Design IconsMIT4.4.2831
Bootstrap IconsMIT1.11.32716
Remix IconApache License Version 2.04.2.02860
Flat Color IconsMIT1.0.2329
Grommet-IconsApache License Version 2.04.12.1635
HeroiconsMIT1.0.6460
Heroicons 2MIT2.1.3888
Simple IconsCC0 1.0 Universal12.14.03209
Simple Line IconsMIT2.5.5189
IcoMoon FreeCC BY 4.0 Licensed006795ede82361e1bac1ee76f215cf1dc51e4ca491
BoxIconsMIT2.1.41634
css.ggMIT2.1.1704
VS Code IconsCC BY 4.00.0.35461
Tabler IconsMIT3.2.05237
Themify IconsMITv0.1.2-2-g9600186352
Radix IconsMIT@radix-ui/react-icons@1.3.0-1-g94b3fcf318
Phosphor IconsMIT2.1.19072
Icons8 Line AwesomeMIT1.3.11544

You can add more icons by submitting pull requests or creating issues.

Configuration

You can configure react-icons props using React Context API.

Requires React 16.3 or higher.

import { IconContext } from "react-icons";

<IconContext.Provider value={{ color: "blue", className: "global-class-name" }}>
  <div>
    <FaFolder />
  </div>
</IconContext.Provider>;
KeyDefaultNotes
colorundefined (inherit)
size1em
classNameundefined
styleundefinedCan overwrite size and color
attrundefinedOverwritten by other attributes
titleundefinedIcon description for accessibility

Migrating from version 2 -> 3

Change import style

Import path has changed. You need to rewrite from the old style.

// OLD IMPORT STYLE
import FaBeer from "react-icons/lib/fa/beer";

function Question() {
  return (
    <h3>
      Lets go for a <FaBeer />?
    </h3>
  );
}
// NEW IMPORT STYLE
import { FaBeer } from "react-icons/fa";

function Question() {
  return (
    <h3>
      Lets go for a <FaBeer />?
    </h3>
  );
}

Ending up with a large JS bundle? Check out this issue.

Adjustment CSS

From version 3, vertical-align: middle is not automatically given. Please use IconContext to specify className or specify an inline style.

Global Inline Styling

<IconContext.Provider value={{ style: { verticalAlign: 'middle' } }}>

Global className Styling

Component

<IconContext.Provider value={{ className: 'react-icons' }}>

CSS

.react-icons {
  vertical-align: middle;
}

TypeScript native support

Dependencies on @types/react-icons can be deleted.

Yarn

yarn remove @types/react-icons

NPM

npm remove @types/react-icons

Contributing

./build-script.sh will build the whole project. See also CI scripts for more information.

Development

yarn
cd packages/react-icons
yarn fetch  # fetch icon sources
yarn build

Add/Update icon set

First, check the discussion to see if anyone would like to add an icon set.

https://github.com/react-icons/react-icons/discussions/categories/new-icon-set

The SVG files to be fetched are managed in this file. Edit this file and run yarn fetch && yarn check && yarn build.

https://github.com/react-icons/react-icons/blob/master/packages/react-icons/src/icons/index.ts

Preview

Note The project is not actively accepting PR for the preview site at this time.

The preview site is the react-icons website, built in Astro+React.

cd packages/react-icons
yarn fetch
yarn build

cd ../preview-astro
yarn start

Demo

The demo is a Create React App boilerplate with react-icons added as a dependency for easy testing.

cd packages/react-icons
yarn fetch
yarn build

cd ../demo
yarn start

Why React SVG components instead of fonts?

SVG is supported by all major browsers. With react-icons, you can serve only the needed icons instead of one big font file to the users, helping you to recognize which icons are used in your project.

Related Projects

Licence

MIT

  • Icons are taken from the other projects so please check each project licences accordingly.