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Bulma vs Material UI: What are the differences?


Introduction

In this Markdown document, we will compare the key differences between Bulma and Material UI, two popular front-end frameworks for developing websites.

  1. Customization Options: Bulma provides a more flexible and customizable approach, allowing users to easily modify the design and appearance of components. On the other hand, Material UI follows Google's Material Design guidelines more strictly, offering a more consistent and standardized look and feel.

  2. Component Library: Material UI offers a wide range of pre-built and styled components out of the box, making it easier for developers to quickly build websites with consistent aesthetics. Bulma, on the other hand, has a smaller component library in comparison and requires more manual styling.

  3. Dependency Management: Bulma is a standalone CSS framework and can be used with any JavaScript framework or library. Material UI, on the other hand, is tightly integrated with React and leverages its component-based architecture, providing seamless integration with React projects.

  4. Community Support: Material UI has a larger and more active community, with extensive documentation, tutorials, and resources available. Bulma, while still a widely used framework, has a smaller community and may have fewer resources and support options.

  5. Ease of Use: Bulma is designed to be lightweight and intuitive, making it easier for developers to get started quickly. Material UI has a steeper learning curve and might require more time to understand its component-oriented approach and design principles.

  6. Theme Customization: Bulma allows users to easily customize the theme and color scheme of the entire website with just a few lines of code. Material UI also offers theme customization, but it follows the Material Design specifications more strictly, limiting certain customization options.

In summary, Bulma and Material UI differ in terms of customization options, component libraries, dependency management, community support, ease of use, and theme customization capabilities.

Advice on Bulma and Material-UI
Daniel Hernández Alcojor
Frontend Developer at atSistemas · | 8 upvotes · 985.8K views
Needs advice
on
BootstrapBootstrapBulmaBulma
and
UIkItUIkIt

I'm building, from scratch, a webapp. It's going to be a dashboard to check on our apps in New Relic and update the Apdex from the webapp. I have just chosen Next.js as our framework because we use React already, and after going through the tutorial, I just loved the latest changes they have implemented.

But we have to decide on a CSS framework for the UI. I'm partial to Bulma because I love that it's all about CSS (and you can use SCSS from the start), that it's rather lightweight and that it doesn't come with JavaScript clutter. One of the things I hate about Bootstrap is that you depend on jQuery to use the JavaScript part. My boss loves UIkIt, but when I've used it in the past, I didn't like it.

What do you think we should use? Maybe you have another suggestion?

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Replies (7)
Recommends
on
UIkItUIkIt

I have used bulma in several projects. We could not customize with the websites very well. Also when we need "quick solutions" Bulma is not suitable (I mean basic animations, to-top buttons, transparent navbar solutions etc. For these solutions, you need extra js codes).

Everybody knows about Bootstrap (heavy but popular).

Now we start a new project with UI kit, I like it. Pros: It is fast and lightweight and imho it has very good UI. Cons: Small community. Documentation.

Check this link for kick-off. https://github.com/zzseba78/Kick-Off

Maybe it is helpful.

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Damien Lucchese
Recommends
on
BulmaBulma

Been checking out Bulma, myself, and really dig it. I like that it's a great base level jumping off point. You can get a layout going with it, pretty quickly, and then customize as you want. It definitely sounds like it's the one you're leaning towards but a big factor would be who will be using it most? Your boss, yourself, others? Whichever you like best, you'll prob be most productive with but if in the end your boss says it has to be UIkit, then best to be open-minded and give it another shot. Sometimes you may not jive with new tools in your stack, at first, but then they can become tools you learn to love. Best to you in your decision! Take care & keep safe.

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Recommends
on
DiezDiez

I've moved away from the concept of UI kits. Not that many support CSS grid. A lot of the icons are easier to use in SVG. I've had success in the concept of design framework and design tokens. I build my brand identity in Figma, and extract in Diez. Then Diez integrates into React and SASS. Much easier because design is decoupled from software in a central authority, and software updates automatically from design changes.

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Recommends
on
BulmaBulma

Honestly - pick whatever you are the most comfortable with. You can achieve almost the same effects with different tools, so why not use something I like using?

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Tomer Fishaimer
Frontend Architect at Aqua Security · | 2 upvotes · 534.7K views
Recommends
on
Tailwind CSSTailwind CSS

Actually it really depends on your needs, there are 3 types of UI frameworks you can use:

  1. A complete set of UI components like: https://react-bulma.dev/en/getting-started.

    Pros:

    Having a lot of pre-built UI components saves a lot of time

    Cons:

    need to learn the react framework and the bulma styles, and it's harder to customize to your needs

  2. A pure css framework, like Bulma, where you write all the components yourself.

    Pros:

    A lot of flexibility to build the components you need

    Cons:

    You are bound to Bulma classes and markup.

    Takes more time since you need to build the components

  3. A utility class framework like: https://tailwindcss.com/.

Pros:

Most flexible, mix and match classes as you like and build your own markup

Very easy to customize to your needs

Cons:

Might take time to get used to and takes more time since you need to build the components

If you choose options one, then it's just a matter of deciding what style you like (material,ant, bulma) and go with the library that implements it If you go with pure css and build your own components, I can't recommend tailwind enough, I've been finding myself building entire pages without writing a single line of css.

And if later on, the designer wants to make a change to some color, or size, I just need to change one value in the config file, and the entire app is updated.

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Recommends

I used UIKit and Bootstrap many times. I love Bootstrap for fast, easy layouts to web apps. Clean code, easiest and fastest way to write layouts for front end if you learned something before about Bootstrap. Now in React I use React-Boostrap too. About UIKit I can say its nice idea. It's easier than Bootstrap. This is good option for trainee developer to learn how u should create layout of your website, but for me UIKit have not enough functions. If you need to create something complicated, u have an error in your mind. You must create amazing code combinations for UIKit where in Bootstrap in the same ideas you have easy solutions.

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Decisions about Bulma and Material-UI

Fonts and typography are fun. Material Design is a framework (developed by Google) that basically geeks out on how to assemble your typographical elements together into a design language. If you're into fonts and typography, it's fantastic. It provides a theming engine, reusable components, and can pull different user interfaces together under a common design paradigm. I'd highly recommend looking into Borries Schwesinger's book "The Form Book" if you're going to be working with Material UI or are otherwise new to component design.

https://www.amazon.com/Form-Book-Creating-Printed-Online/dp/0500515085

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Pros of Bulma
Pros of Material-UI
  • 12
    Easy setup
  • 6
    Easy-to-customize the sass build
  • 6
    Community-created themes
  • 5
    Responsive
  • 5
    Great docs
  • 4
    Easy to learn and use
  • 141
    React
  • 82
    Material Design
  • 60
    Ui components
  • 30
    CSS framework
  • 25
    Component
  • 14
    Looks great
  • 12
    Responsive
  • 12
    Good documentation
  • 9
    LESS
  • 8
    Ui component
  • 7
    Open source
  • 6
    Code examples
  • 6
    Flexible
  • 5
    JSS
  • 3
    Angular
  • 3
    Very accessible
  • 3
    Fun
  • 3
    Supports old browsers out of the box
  • 2
    Typescript support
  • 2
    # of components
  • 2
    Interface
  • 2
    Designed for Server Side Rendering
  • 1
    Support for multiple styling systems
  • 1
    Css
  • 1
    Easy to work with
  • 1
    Accessibility

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Cons of Bulma
Cons of Material-UI
  • 2
    Not yet supporting Vue 3
  • 34
    Hard to learn. Bad documentation
  • 27
    Hard to customize
  • 20
    Hard to understand Docs
  • 7
    Bad performance
  • 6
    Extra library needed for date/time pickers
  • 6
    For editable table component need to use material-table
  • 1
    Typescript Support
  • 0
    # of components

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