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Material Design vs UIkIt: What are the differences?
What is Material Design? Google's Material Design. Material Design is a unified system that combines theory, resources, and tools for crafting digital experiences.
What is UIkIt? A lightweight and modular front-end framework for developing fast and powerful web interfaces. UIkit gives you a comprehensive collection of HTML, CSS, and JS components which is simple to use, easy to customize and extendable.
Material Design and UIkIt can be categorized as "Front-End Frameworks" tools.
"They really set a new bar in design" is the top reason why over 2 developers like Material Design, while over 25 developers mention "Complete GUI" as the leading cause for choosing UIkIt.
UIkIt is an open source tool with 14.7K GitHub stars and 2.11K GitHub forks. Here's a link to UIkIt's open source repository on GitHub.
According to the StackShare community, Material Design has a broader approval, being mentioned in 25 company stacks & 38 developers stacks; compared to UIkIt, which is listed in 45 company stacks and 9 developer stacks.
I am a bit confused when to choose Bootstrap vs Material Design or Tailwind CSS, and why? I mean, in which kind of projects we can work with bootstrap/Material/Tailwind CSS? If the design is made up on the grid, we prefer bootstrap, and if flat design, then material design. Similarly, when do we choose tailwind CSS?
Any suggestion would be appreciated?
I don't know about material design.
You would go with Bootstrap if you want to prototype / build something without bothering about the design at all and you are OK if everything looks kinda template-y, using bootstrap out of the box components.
Go with Tailwind if you need a sleek design, a user interface where building with components will be important (because tailwind strongly favors component-based UI), and you know you will need to extend the built-in classes with your own (because tailwind is very easy to extend)
I would personally recommend tailwind over bootstrap any day of the week.
Hi Ashish,
If you need minimal work to be done from your end and like most of the components / design available out of the box - go with Bootstrap. This is the oldest and has the widest adoption and a whole range of components built out by others.
If you like Material design, this is a good choice too. Please note that Bootstrap also has a Material theme, though it is not as native.
Both of these above frameworks are bulky and has more than what you may need.
If you like to build micro-components in a elegant way, TailwindCSS is the way to go.
Tailwind is great you don't have to mess with naming things and it is so much more flexible than the cookie cutter bootstrap, but I don't know about material UI. I recommend tailwind it's super simple to learn and has great code snippets.
Put simply, you should use Tailwind regardless. It is a great addition to whatever you use because it removes the hassle of writing CSS.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Actually it really depends on your needs, there are 3 types of UI frameworks you can use:
-
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
-
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
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.
We are re-modifying the existing portal to the new one. Looking out for a CSS framework where over-rides are possible, the performance of page loading, extendable, etc Please suggest between tailwind, UIkit and bootstrap frameworks explaining in detail on different factors. I request your help on the same.
I'm a big proponent of Tailwind and I personally use it whenever I get the chance, mostly because it's not really a UI-kit, but it sounds like in this case a UI-kit like Bootstrap with pre-defined components is more what you are looking for. Bootstrap is (relatively) extendable and overridable and makes it really simple to make a decent looking UI using a handful of pre-defined classes, whereas with Tailwind you configure the classes and create your own components. My main reason for replacing Bootstrap in my workflow is that it feels like the component creation has become so abstracted from the developer that any meaningful customization becomes a chore, resulting in many websites having the generic "Bootstrap-look". Nonetheless, it is effective for creating a pleasant and responsive UI. Though, I don't have any experience with UIkit.
Hey Sai, My thoughts on UIkit - It's beautiful, it's fast and it has good animation too. Why would I choose it ? Nothing other than giving the internet a new look .
My thoughts on Bootstrap - it's beautiful, if used well. It's very fast and has clean class naming convention unlike Uikit.
Why I would choose it ? It's been tested and trusted, I can find a whole lot of resources and a community around it. Also with the type of project you working on I bet Bootstrap would do the job .
My thoughts on tailwind - classic, difficult to set up and clean utilities. I wouldn't think of tailwind the way I would to Bootstrap or UIkit. What do I mean ? Tailwind is more like a tool set to create your own design flow rather than giving you a pre-designed button it gives you the ability to design yours.
My final thoughts.
If you have the time , setup and use tailwind it will give you a great chance when it comes to extending and performance.
Ant Design offers the most components with JS and CSS taken care of. They look clean, professional, and usable.
We paired this with Bulma for making the containers and structure reactive. Bulma (for react) make it easy to just add a section, container, and content and have it work on all platforms.
We also use Geist UI, though not recognized by Stack share, for its simple and modern feel. Highly recommend Geist if you want modern components for complicated UI's
Pros of Material Design
- An intuitive design4
- They really set a new bar in design4
- Simply, And Beautiful2
- Many great libraries2
- Composants0
Pros of UIkIt
- Complete GUI39
- Easy modify29
- Practical27
- Easy to learn24
- Functional24
- Intuitive22
- Free21
- Simple16
- Lightweight15
- Easy to use15
- Modern look5
- Modular5
- Because I can create amazing things with little effort5
- Responsiveness4
- Small but Active Community3
- Convenient JS Components2
- Based on Flexbox2
- Responsive grid2
- No requires jquery2
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Cons of Material Design
- Sometimes, it can hang the browser2