Top 6 CSS Frameworks for Web Developement(2021) !
Can you imagine web development without CSS?
No!
Although CSS used to work differently in various browsers and often caused us headaches when we wondered, “What will this style pair well with?” We still can’t live without it. CSS is essential for bringing life to our HTML pages.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) give style to your pages or HTML elements. With CSS, you can control the layout of multiple web pages using a single stylesheet or write custom styles for specific elements. For example, you can create an h1 element with blue text like this:
h1 {
color: blue;
text-align: center;
}Or set your page’s background color to black with the following:
body {
background-color: black;
}All CSS rules are stored in .css files. As the number of web pages grows, so does the number of styles, eventually leading to larger CSS files. When multiple people work on a project, managing changes can become challenging, often resulting in a lack of consistency in the code.
Thankfully, CSS frameworks have helped address these challenges. They reduce the randomness in coding and provide developers with much-needed relief. Different frameworks cater to specific project requirements, each offering unique features.
For a quick review of CSS concepts, you may find the CSS Cheat Sheet helpful.
Why Do We Need CSS Frameworks?
In addition to making coding easier, CSS frameworks offer several significant benefits:
- Cross-browser functionality
- Symmetrical layouts
- Maintainable and responsive styling
- Good web design practices
- Improved productivity and faster development speeds
Top CSS Frameworks in 2021
1. Tailwind CSS
Tailwind enables faster development of the front-end. Instead of a default theme or built-in UI components, you’d get pre-designed widgets menu and utility classes to build your website. Tailwind has modular components, and if you make changes in one place, other parts of your code won’t get impacted. Tailwind requires the least amount of learning and is easy to use. You can customize your website using CSS helper classes.
Features:
It is a utility-first type of framework that provides helper classes.
It lets you choose the design you want for your website and is not opinionated.
Each class has detailed documentation, allowing developers to quickly find what they need (E.g., Grid, Flexbox).
More productivity and smaller package size
No naming or context-switching, i.e., switching between HTML and CSS to see the changes.
Code can be re-used elegantly using the Components feature.
2. Bootstrap
Bootstrap is the most popular CSS framework globally. Its responsive design instantly made it popular. Bootstrap was the first framework to prioritize mobile devices. With the Framework, there is no need for a separate design for mobile viewing—add the necessary classes, and the website will adapt to the screen size of the device. The grid was introduced in this framework, which drastically reduced the code a developer had to write.
Features:
Compatible with all browsers – no need to write browser-specific code allowing for rapid prototyping.
The most commonly used CSS framework, Bootstrap, has broad community support and has changed how CSS is applied to websites.
All the commonly used components are built-in. For example, navigation, forms, cards, buttons, badges, etc., are readily available.
Excellent JavaScript components with custom CDN
Free to use – and version 4.5 has more pre-set layouts and responsiveness.
Anyone can learn – easy even for those new to CSS.
3. Foundation
One of the most advanced and sophisticated UI frameworks, Foundation enables faster website development. Like Bootstrap, Foundation follows a mobile-first approach and is fully responsive. It is suitable for huge web applications that need extensive styling. Foundation is customizable, flexible, and semantic. There are over 2,000 contributors on Github and decent community support. The foundation allows developers to explore their creativity as much as possible.
Features:
Very easy to read the code and understand.
It is not just a CSS framework but a complete front-end framework loaded with useful tools.
Comes with a command-line-interface (CLI) to compile Foundation sources to CSS that can be used in HTML markup.
It was originally developed by the company ZURB, now maintained by volunteers.
Flexible, modular, and extensible.
Provides many optional modular JavaScript components and plugins like tooltips, alerts, carousels, dropdown, placeholder, cookies, etc.
Flexible navigation patterns that save many lines of code, improving productivity.
4. Bulma
Although new, Bulma has quickly climbed the list of the top 10 CSS frameworks. It has over 2 lakh users and is growing. Bulma has no JavaScript components (no .js) and the most readable CSS classes. To create grids, Bulma has a powerful system known as tiles, which makes the page elegant and neat. It is highly modular and easy to learn. Although small, Bulma has a community of passionate individuals who want to change the way CSS is used for websites.
Features:
Innovative design with Sass variables that make customization simple even for beginners.
It is a very versatile framework that includes typography, tables, components for vertical alignments, media objects, a layout, and more.
Free and open-source (MIT License).
Flexbox based, so that creation of vertically aligned and grid items is effortless.
Since it is modular, you need not import everything – only import the components that your project uses.
It contains utility functions to calculate colors, visibility, spacing, etc.
5. UI Kit
UI Kit is a comprehensive collection of CSS, HTML, and JS components. It is modular and lightweight. UIKit is used for iOS application development and is easy to use. This framework allows you to customize your app to any level. It contains all the core components, such as labels, buttons, table views, etc. There are plenty of ready-to-use themes, and you can use them using the corresponding SASS or LESS CSS file.
Features:
Comes with many pre-built components like animations, Iconnav, padding, alert, accordion, etc.
Clean and minimalist design with a modern interface.
Self-contained system and takes more effort to extend or modify (when compared to other frameworks).
Easy to set up.
A free and open-source framework that works on any browser.
6. Materialize CSS
Materialize was created by Google in 2014. It is a responsive UI framework for websites and Android apps. Also it provides many ready-to-use components, classes, and starter templates. But it is compatible with Sass and has a responsive layout based on this framework’s 12-column grid format. So, if you want to work with Material Design (Google’s design language) and create Google-like effects on your website, Materialize CSS will be an excellent choice for you.
Features:
So it is easy to work with and focuses on user experience by utilizing principles of material design.
Since better in-built animations and transitions to speed up development.
Plenty of themes to start.
Also it is elegant padding and depth effects like lighting and shadows.
Materialize requires the only jQuery, unlike that requires popper.js and offers everything that offers – Colors, shadows, Grid, tables, Badges, cards, chips, navbar, etc.
Conclusion
CSS frameworks have revolutionized website design and development. From saving time with pre-built styles to ensuring consistency across devices and browsers, frameworks like Tailwind CSS, Bootstrap, Foundation, Bulma, UI Kit, and Materialize CSS make web development faster, easier, and more efficient.
Each CSS framework has strengths and caters to different project needs. Whether you’re building a mobile-first application, a responsive website, or a highly customizable UI, there’s a framework designed to fit your requirements. Choosing the right one depends on your project’s goals, your team’s familiarity with the framework, and the features you need.
By leveraging the power of these frameworks, developers can focus on creating user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing, and highly functional websites with less effort. So, explore these options and integrate the best framework into your workflow to take your web development projects to the next level.
