Overview

Bootstrap

Stacks57.4K

Followers13.2K

Votes7.7K

GitHub Stars173.6K

Forks79.2K

Foundation

Stacks1.2K

Followers1.2K

Votes740

UIkIt

Stacks791

Followers417

Votes262

GitHub Stars18.5K

Forks2.3K

Bootstrap vs Foundation vs UIkIt: What are the differences?

## Introduction
When it comes to front-end frameworks, Bootstrap, Foundation, and UIkit are among the most popular choices for developers. Each of these frameworks offers a variety of features and functionalities that cater to different design preferences and development needs.

## 1. Flexibility:
Bootstrap offers a more rigid framework with predefined styles and components, providing a consistent look and feel out of the box. Foundation, on the other hand, allows for more customization and flexibility, enabling developers to create unique designs with greater control. UIkit strikes a balance between the two, offering a good level of flexibility while still maintaining a solid foundation for design consistency.

## 2. Learning curve:
Bootstrap has a larger community and more extensive documentation, making it easier for beginners to get started and find solutions to problems. Foundation, although well-documented, may have a steeper learning curve due to its more extensive customization options. UIkit falls in between, with reasonably good documentation and community support for users at various skill levels.

## 3. Theming and customization:
Bootstrap provides robust theming options through variables and mixins, allowing developers to easily customize the appearance of their designs. Foundation offers similar theming capabilities but may require more knowledge of Sass and advanced styling techniques. UIkit simplifies theming by employing a modular approach, making it easy to customize components without delving into complex styling.

## 4. Grid system:
Bootstrap's grid system is based on a 12-column layout that is widely used for responsive web design. Foundation also follows a 12-column grid system but offers more built-in flexibility and customization options. UIkit's grid system is based on a 24-column layout, providing finer control over design layouts in a visually appealing way.

## 5. Component and plugin availability:
Bootstrap comes with a wide range of components and plugins built-in, reducing the need for third-party integrations for common functionalities. Foundation offers fewer pre-built components but provides a modular structure for easy integration of custom or third-party components. UIkit provides a comprehensive set of core components with the option to extend functionality through its built-in add-ons.

## 6. Design aesthetic:
Bootstrap is known for its sleek and modern design aesthetics, making it a popular choice for projects that require a contemporary look. Foundation focuses more on providing a clean and minimalistic design approach, appealing to designers looking for simplicity and elegance. UIkit's design aesthetic leans towards a lightweight and vibrant appearance, offering a visually appealing and user-friendly interface for modern web applications.

In Summary, when choosing between Bootstrap, Foundation, and UIkit, consider the level of flexibility, learning curve, theming options, grid system preferences, component availability, and design aesthetic to match your project requirements and design preferences.

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Advice on Bootstrap, Foundation, UIkIt

Bridget

Full Stack Developer at Bridget Sarah

May 29, 2020

Decided

I do prefer to write things from scratch however when it came to wanting to jump-start the frontend, I found that it was taking me a lot longer hence why needing to use something very fast.

Bootstrap was the boom when it came out, I didn't like it, to be honest, set in its way and a pain to over-ride and in addition, you can tell from a distance if you're using boostrap and as everything looks the same.

I came across Tailwind CSS as I wanted more dynamic features, you could say, I've been now doing it for a few days and I love it a lot. I've been practising with the full stack part installed but I an't we wait until I do a new project, and I'll e able to select exactly what I want. Much faster.

681k views681k

Comments

Kexin

Mar 4, 2021

Decided

I replaced Bootstrap with Material-UI during the front-end UI development, because Material-UI adopts a component-based importing style, making it suit well in a "React programming style". This makes me comfortable when programming because I can treat importing UI components as other React components I define.

281k views281k

Comments

Syed

Jul 16, 2020

Needs adviceon

Bootstrap

Tailwind CSS

I am planning to redesign my entire application, which is currently in Bootstrap. I heard about Tailwind CSS, and I think its really cool to work with. Is it okay if I use Bootstrap and Tailwind together? I can't remove Bootstrap altogether, as my application is using the js dependencies of Bootstrap, which I don't want to disturb.

739k views739k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Bootstrap	Foundation	UIkIt
Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web.	Foundation is the most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world. You can quickly prototype and build sites or apps that work on any kind of device with Foundation, which includes layout constructs (like a fully responsive grid), elements and best practices.	UIkit gives you a comprehensive collection of HTML, CSS, and JS components which is simple to use, easy to customize and extendable.
Preprocessors: Bootstrap ships with vanilla CSS, but its source code utilizes the two most popular CSS preprocessors, Less and Sass. Quickly get started with precompiled CSS or build on the source.;One framework, every device: Bootstrap easily and efficiently scales your websites and applications with a single code base, from phones to tablets to desktops with CSS media queries.;Full of features: With Bootstrap, you get extensive and beautiful documentation for common HTML elements, dozens of custom HTML and CSS components, and awesome jQuery plugins.	Semantic: Everything is semantic. You can have the cleanest markup without sacrificing the utility and speed of Foundation.;Mobile First: You can build for small devices first. Then, as devices get larger and larger, layer in more complexity for a complete responsive design.;Customizable: You can customize your build to include or remove certain elements, as well as define the size of columns, colors, font size and more.;Professional: Millions of designers and developers depend on Foundation. Now we have business support, training and consulting to help grow your product or service.	LESS - UIkit is developed in LESS to write well-structured, extendable code which is easy to maintain.;Components - A collection of small, responsive components using consistent and conflict-free naming conventions.;Customizer - UIkit's very basic style can be extended with themes and is easy to customize to create your own look.;Responsive - With the mobile-first approach UIkit provides a consistent experience from phones and tablets to desktops.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 173.6K	GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 18.5K
GitHub Forks 79.2K	GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 2.3K
Stacks 57.4K	Stacks 1.2K	Stacks 791
Followers 13.2K	Followers 1.2K	Followers 417
Votes 7.7K	Votes 740	Votes 262
Pros & Cons
Pros 1582 Responsiveness 1193 UI components 943 Consistent 779 Great docs 677 Flexible Cons 26 Javascript is tied to jquery 16 Every site uses the defaults 15 Grid system break points aren't ideal 14 Too much heavy decoration in default look 8 Verbose styles	Pros 160 Responsive grid 93 Mobile first 80 Open source 75 Semantic 72 Customizable Cons 5 Requires jQuery 4 Awful site	Pros 39 Complete GUI 29 Easy modify 27 Practical 24 Easy to learn 24 Functional

What are some alternatives to Bootstrap, Foundation, UIkIt?

Semantic UI

Semantic empowers designers and developers by creating a shared vocabulary for UI.

Materialize

A CSS Framework based on material design.

Material Design for Angular

Material Design is a specification for a unified system of visual, motion, and interaction design that adapts across different devices. Our goal is to deliver a lean, lightweight set of AngularJS-native UI elements that implement the material design system for use in Angular SPAs.

Material-UI

Material UI is a library of React UI components that implements Google's Material Design.

Blazor

Blazor is a .NET web framework that runs in any browser. You author Blazor apps using C#/Razor and HTML.

Quasar Framework

Build responsive Single Page Apps, SSR Apps, PWAs, Hybrid Mobile Apps and Electron Apps, all using the same codebase!, powered with Vue.

Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js presets all the configuration needed to make your development of a Vue.js application enjoyable. You can use Nuxt.js for SSR, SPA, Static Generated, PWA and more.

Tailwind CSS

Tailwind is different from frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, or Bulma in that it's not a UI kit. It doesn't have a default theme, and there are no build-in UI components. It comes with a menu of predesigned widgets to build your site with, but doesn't impose design decisions that are difficult to undo.

Vuetify

Vuetify is a component framework for Vue.js 2. It aims to provide clean, semantic and reusable components that make building your application a breeze. Vuetify utilizes Google's Material Design design pattern, taking cues from other popular frameworks such as Materialize.css, Material Design Lite, Semantic UI and Bootstrap 4.

Polymer

Polymer is a new type of library for the web, designed to leverage the existing browser infrastructure to provide the encapsulation and extendability currently only available in JS libraries. Polymer is based on a set of future technologies, including Shadow DOM, Custom Elements and Model Driven Views. Currently these technologies are implemented as polyfills or shims, but as browsers adopt these features natively, the platform code that drives Polymer evacipates, leaving only the value-adds.