Top 10 Bootstrap Alternatives

Top 10 Bootstrap Alternatives

For a long time now, Bootstrap has been one of the most popular front-end frameworks and has been featured in the top list of many developers. There are not many frameworks out there like Bootstrap when it comes to designing splendid front-end websites. The user base of Bootstrap is really huge, and it is the second most starred project on GitHub, with over 161K stars by December 2022. While Bootstrap is undoubtedly amazing at what it does, there are some other frameworks or bootstrap alternatives; which are equally good and may fit your requirement better.

Top Bootstrap Alternatives

Below are the top 10 frontend web designing alternatives (Bootstrap Alternatives) to Bootstrap for you to try over.

1. Foundation by Zurb

“A Framework for any device, medium, and accessibility.” is what they call themselves and they certainly are true. With all the perks of an advanced framework, Foundation is definitely the strongest alternative to Bootstrap. It is being used by some of the biggest organizations in the world for e.g. Adobe, Amazon, HP, eBay etc to quote a few. It included all the necessary components of an application like a responsive grid, buttons, basic typography, and many other UI elements.

Not only this, but they also have ‘Foundation for Emails’ which is a framework to code responsive HTML emails. Hence, whenever you are looking for an alternative to Bootstrap, do give Foundation a try.

2. Bulma

Bulma came to market around 3 years ago and became instantly popular. It was one of the first CSS frameworks to have implemented a full-fledged flexbox grid. Except this, it has a huge selection of components needed to code any kind of website. Bulma comes with a beautiful range of colors out-of-the-box and it won’t be wrong if we call it the most beautiful framework out there in the market. It can be used directly to get really nice looking websites with very least effort.

The only downside it has as compared to Bootstrap and Foundation is, it is only a CSS framework, no JavaScript. So you will have to write your own JavaScript or Jquery to toggle your dropdowns or perform other basic interactions of the sort. Overall it is a great alternative to Bootstrap, which is also being updated very frequently.

3. Skeleton

Skeleton is a lightweight CSS framework, majorly popular for its 12-column fluid grid, which consists of rows and columns, similar to other CSS grids. The newer version of Skeleton adopts a mobile-first approach, which enables the layout to be the center of attraction, irrespective of the screen size. Being lightweight, Skeleton can speed up the front-end development process.

Skeleton is the perfect alternative to Bootstrap if you wish to create something small and straightforward without having to go through heaps of utilities of larger frameworks. Skeleton will provide the developer with fundamental components such as buttons, lists, forms, tables and more, which are enough to get them started.

4. Pure

Pure.css is a CSS framework bunch of CSS modules clustered together. The crux of Pure lies in its weight. It is incredibly lightweight, as it has been crafted keeping mobile devices in mind, in which small file size is imperative. The framework is purely CSS in nature, doing justice to its name.

It allows the developers to create responsive layouts by using grids, menus, menus, forms, buttons and much more. This small yet useful framework outperforms Bootstrap when it comes to mobile devices.

5. Groundwork

Groundwork is a responsive, lightweight, flexible front-end framework, which allows developers to create scalable and accessible web applications. It makes use of an exceedingly configurable, responsive and adaptive fluid grid system, which enables the framework to work on any type of screen—mobile phones notebooks and even big screens.

The framework is easy to customize, and you can put in your own styles and bolt for additional functionality. The framework has been built on top of Sass and Compass and includes the tools one needs to create responsive headings, text blocks, and tablets.

6. Cardinal

Cardinal is a CSS framework built for high performance, scalability, and maintainability. This ‘mobile-first’ framework makes it easier for developers to build, scale and maintain UIs, applications and responsive websites.

The framework comes with a number of helper classes for quick application of styles upon an element, reducing development time. Cardinal also extends supports to most modern browsers, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, iOS Safari, and Android. Its mobile-first approach and CSS Box model make it a perfect alternative to Bootstrap.

7. Powertocss

powertocss is a lightweight frontend framework designed on the principles of Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS (SMACSS) and Don’t Repeat Your (DRY) CSS. The framework is easy to learn with simple and easy class names, such as .button, .column and more.

This small framework is lightning fast when compared to the leading names in the market, and works on the principle of fast to learn, fast to load and fast to develop. Built on open source technology, it is customizable, and you can also add your own themes.

8. Mueller

A modular responsive grid system, Mueller is built upon Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets (Sass) and Compass (open-source CSS Authoring Framework). Mueller allows developers to create a grid using a grid function (grid()) over the approach of adding classes straight to the elements, in order to keep HTML elements neat and clean.

The grid system is particularly useful for creating responsive and adaptive layouts, much like the popular website Pinterest. The system provides total access over column width, media queries, baseline grid and gutter width for customization.

9. Bootflat

Built on the Bootstrap 3, Bootflat is an open source CSS framework designed to produce stunning web designs. Developers using Bootflat can create elegant web applications in a faster and easier way with less repetition. The components of the framework are built using HTML5 and CSS3, and it comes with multiple built-in color schemes for easy and splendid customization. Keeping mobile first, Bootflat focuses on providing off-screen navigation and using lightweight high-functions plugins for optimal performance and low size.

10. Materialize

Materialize is a modern responsive front-end framework based on Material Design principles of Google. Material design is a design language created by Google, which combines traditional methods of designs along with innovations and technology. This framework is perfect for the developers who wish to incorporate a touch of Material Design on their website without any complicated code. It offers card design, Sass mixins, drag-out mobile menu, ripple effect animation and much more. The developers of the framework have also provided code examples and detailed documentation to help users new users get started with the framework.

Summary

Finding the right framework is no less than a herculean task, as there are numerous choices, but it is essential to look out for that one framework which fits your requirement perfectly, like the final piece in a puzzle. These above listed are the top most bootstrap alternatives which are used by the front-end programmer.

The alternatives to Bootstrap mentioned in the article have their pros and cons, but they can be the right choice for your project. Even though Bootstrap is still the leading front-end framework, many alternatives are now gaining speed and popularity. (Source: hackr.io)

Happy learning!

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