Bootstrap Alternatives: Tools for Designing Apps and Websites

These days, the number one requirement of any website is to function properly on all types of devices (especially mobile). To that end, Bootstrap has been one of the most popular front-end frameworks and has appeared on the top list of many developers. to design websites optimized for mobile devices.

While Bootstrap is undoubtedly amazing at what it does, there are some other frameworks that are equally good and may better suit your requirements. In this article, we will list 10 Bootstrap alternatives that might be better suited for you in different scenarios.

As you all know, devices like mobile phones and tablets have smaller screen sizes and limited memory compared to desktop computers. Therefore, it is not always a good option to include the Marco Full Bootstrap in your code due to its large file size.

Instead, you can use a library with a lighter footprint than Bootstrap but still provides all the necessary functionalities. There are many other reasons that may convince you to take a look at some Bootstrap alternatives. So, let’s start with the ones below.

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1 Foundation

The world's most advanced responsive front-end framework. Quickly create prototypes and production code for sites that work on any type of device. Foundation is a frontend framework family that make it easy to create responsive websites, apps, and emails for any device.

It is one of the most complete frontend frameworks, and It is even more complete than Bootstrap. Everything you need to configure your applications can be found in a Foundation framework: a mobile design system which features JS plugins, customization, a grid system, typography, UI components, and more.

There's even an entire framework dedicated to emails (which is basically unheard of in the frontend framework ecosystem). This framework is giving Bootstrap a hard timeDevelopers admire it for its unmatched flexibility.

Advantages

• The base can be easily customized to suit specific requirements.
• Professional training and certification are available.
• It offers an unparalleled (separate) interface framework targeted at emails.
• Compatible with Ruby on Rails.
• Support for right-to-left languages.

Disadvantages

• It has a steep learning curve.
• Uses stubborn CSS preprocessor (Sass).
• It's a bit heavy when it comes to IO footprint.

Enter here.

2.bulma

Bulma is another of the best Bootstrap alternatives. It is a CSS framework heavily inspired by Bootstrap and based on the modern Flexible Box Module, commonly known as flexbox.

This framework contains all the most standard frontend elements you can find in Bootstrap (minus the JS plugins): mobile-responsive layout, standard CSS, customizable theme, basic typography, helper CSS classes, common UI components like menus, cards, and more.

Advantages

• A super simple grid system.
• 100% responsive (mainly on mobile devices).
• Modular (only includes what you need)

Disadvantages

• The grid system is based on flexbox, which is not the ideal technology for two-dimensional layouts (flexbox is better for linear layouts).

Enter here.

3. Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS is a highly customizable low-level CSS framework built entirely around the ready-to-use utility concept that Bootstrap also provides. With utilities, you can mix and match many CSS properties anywhere without necessarily having to resort to inline styles.

Advantages

• Highly customizable due to being built around utility classes.
• The Barebones framework means less stuff in the CSS stack for the same result.
• Component compatible. You can also easily create your own components.

Disadvantages

• The use of service classes is highly controversial. Some teams prefer to use semantic CSS instead of utility classes, making adoption a loss in itself.
• No ready-made components. You have to find them or create them yourself.

Enter here.

4. HTML5 Boilerplate

HTML5 Boilerplate is not a framework, but rather an HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript frontend template, born from the combined knowledge of hundreds of developers. It is used to design any type of web page and helps you create fast, robust and adaptable websites or web applications.

Basically, it comes with all the necessary building blocks in one package to design a simple or complex website, such as a scripting language, programming, default print styles, among others.

Advantages

• HTML5 ready.
• Designed with progressive improvement in mind.
• Includes a package to offer the best and most modern experience to date.
• Integrated support for printing a web page.
• Comprehensive, easy-to-understand documentation for each and every line of code.

Disadvantages

• Its latest version has removed full support for older web browsers (IE11 or earlier), although there are versions that support those browsers.

Enter here.

5. Cirrus

Cirrus is one of the most recommended alternatives to Bootstrap because it is a Fully responsive and complete CSS framework With beautiful controls and a simplistic structure, you can integrate Cirrus with any existing design or use it to jumpstart your next project.

Comes with two package options: a “core” package with simple style and functionality and an “ext” package that extends “core” with a subset of components for rapid prototyping.

Advantages

• Simplified Responsive Design Breakpoints (Mobile, Tablet, and Desktop)
• Provides two modern alternatives for layout: flexbox and grid
• Cirrus is open source and free to use for personal or commercial web projects.
• Interoperability with Vue.js (via third-party package).

Disadvantages

• Limited utility classes.
• No JS plugins, meaning you have to code them yourself if needed.
• It only has 5 contributors and a small community of users.

Enter here.

6. Metro UI

Metro UI is an interface framework that brings the concept of Metro (design language) to Windows (OS) to the web. It is packed with over 100 UI components to help you design any type of website.

It offers everything that Bootstrap does, almost to the point of being a copy (at least as far as styling is concerned). Metro UI also comes with a JS library called M4Q which is basically a jQuery replacement and on top of which a lot of JS-based functionality is built.

Advantages

• It's almost like using Bootstrap with a different, smoother JavaScript core library.
• Integrated internationalization support (i18n).
• Interoperable with major JS frameworks (Angular, React and Vue).

Disadvantages

• The documentation is confusing and not very rigorous.

Enter here.

7. UIKit

UIKit, another of the important alternatives to Bootstrap, is a responsive modular front-end framework designed to be lightweight and easy to use. It was created to make pixel-perfect web designs for mobile and desktop screens.

Includes many UI components that work like Bootstrap, which can be connected with HTML or JS code. There are even new components such as Totop, Thumbnav, among others.

Advantages

• Interoperable CSS preprocessing with Less or Sass.
• Language support.
• Built-in icon library.

Disadvantages

• Utility classes are very limited compared to Bootstrap.
• More than 600 open issues on Github represents a yellow flag of sorts. It may be too early to use this framework in an enterprise-grade application.

Enter here.

8. Materialize

Materialize, of course, also has to be among the alternatives to Bootstrap. It is a modern, responsive CSS framework based on Material Design from GoogleBecause of this, the framework incorporates components and animations that provide more feedback to users.

The UI components are very similar to Bootstrap (including JS plugins), but they look and feel lighter, making projects nicer to look at and use.

There are specific framework plugins to address mobile-specific UX issues such as dragging and using the side menu.

Advantages

Extendable via Sass preprocessing

• Compatible with Ruby on Rails.
• Specific plugins to address UX on mobile devices.
• The refined animation and transition system provides a better user experience.
• Materialise developers have designed premium themes that can be purchased on their website. Existing themes increase the speed of prototyping.

Disadvantages

• The Materialize framework has a large community, but still has over 700 open issues that need to be addressed.

Enter here.

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9. element

Element is a set of Reusable and pre-built Vue.js componentsPrinciples such as coherence, feedback, efficiency, and controllability drive the design decisions behind this framework.

Every UI entity in an element-based project must be a Vue.js component, even building blocks like layouts and grids. Styling customization is done using Scss preprocessing.

Advantages

• Customizable themes.
• It has a great community.
• Atom / Visual Studio Code integration.
• Axure sketch/wireframe integration.
• Laravel Starter Kit.
• Integrated internationalization support (i18n).
• Element is distributed under an MIT license that allows you to use its code as you wish.

Disadvantages

• It can only be used in a Vue.js environment, although there are versions for Angular and React that may not be as complete as the original.
• No first class mobile support.
• There are still over 1000 open issues that need to be fixed. The community is huge, but contributions have been declining.
• The framework generates a wide variety of dependencies, which could have a multiplying effect on the number of problems.

Enter here.

10. Onsen

Onsen UI is a UI development framework for hybrid mobile applications (Cordova and others) and web (PWA). Allows developers to create mobile applications using web technologies such as CSS, HTML5, and JavaScript.

It provides all the basic UI components required for a mobile app's user experience. It has bindings for jQuery, AngularJS, Angular, React, and Vue.js.

Advantages

• Customizable themes.
• A wide variety of UI components specifically designed for mobile applications.
• Give end users the native experience they expect from apps on their devices.
• CSS is written in Cssnext, which means all new CSS syntax is available for you to use.
• It is based on native web components and provides bindings for AngularJS, Angular 2, React and Vue.js.

Disadvantages

• It does not come with a free debugger, which means developers must look at each line of code individually.

Enter here.

How to uninstall Bootstrap

If you want to get rid of the program and use one of the listed alternatives, open Programs and Features. The procedure will depend on the system you are working with. Pay attention:

For Windows Vista

• Step 1: go to Home, place uninstall a program in the section Search Programs and files and then select the result and click on it.

For Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10

• Step 1: go to WinX and hold down the keys Windows and X at the same time. Then click on Programs and Features.

• Step 2: Click Bootstrap (which should be listed), click on it, and then click where it says uninstall to start the uninstall process.

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Final thoughts

There are many options When it comes to designing a responsive web applicationThe Bootstrap alternatives mentioned above are suitable in different scenarios. Therefore, you need to choose wisely whether the framework can achieve what you need or not.

Sometimes adding Bootstrap to a small website template may not be the right choice, because it brings a lot of extra “weight” that can slow down your simple website.

One point to keep in mind is that Google “dislikes” websites that take more than 3 seconds to load. Also, it ends up lowering the overall ranking of your website. Therefore, you need to spend some time in selecting the CSS framework suitable for your specific requirements.