Angular Material vs Material-UI: What are the differences?

Angular Material and Material-UI are both popular libraries for implementing Material Design components in web applications. Let's explore the key differences between them.

1. Software Stack Integration: Angular Material is specifically designed for use with the Angular framework, providing seamless integration and compatibility. On the other hand, Material-UI is a React component library, built specifically for React applications. This means that Angular Material may be a better choice for developers working with Angular, while Material-UI is ideal for React developers.

2. Component Customization: Angular Material offers a wide range of customization options, allowing developers to easily modify and adapt components to fit their specific application requirements. Material-UI, on the other hand, provides a highly customizable set of components, enabling developers to tailor them to their needs using CSS-in-JS or accessing the underlying styles directly.

3. Component Availability: Angular Material offers a comprehensive set of Material Design components, including form controls, navigation elements, and overlays. It also provides out-of-the-box support for accessibility features. Material-UI, on the other hand, provides a vast library of components that extend beyond the scope of Material Design, including data grids, charts, and icons.

4. Documentation and Community: Angular Material benefits from being a part of the Angular ecosystem, which boasts a large and active community. This means that developers can easily find relevant resources, tutorials, and community support for Angular Material. Material-UI, while also having a large community, may have a more focused community of React developers.

5. Styling Approach: Angular Material follows a uniform design language, adhering closely to the principles of Material Design. This ensures a consistent and cohesive user experience across different applications. Material-UI takes a more flexible approach, allowing developers to choose from different design systems, such as Material Design, Fluent UI, or their own custom style.

6. Performance Considerations: Angular Material has been optimized for performance within the Angular framework, leveraging features like change detection and zone.js. Material-UI, being a React library, leverages virtual DOM and has its own optimizations for performance.

In summary, Angular Material is tightly integrated with Angular, offers extensive customization options, and has a comprehensive set of Material Design components. Material-UI, on the other hand, is ideal for React developers, provides a wide range of components beyond Material Design, and offers greater flexibility in terms of styling and customization.