Though the role of Bootstrap is significant in software development, Bootstrap Alternatives are establishing in the IT industry. Still, bootstrap has a wide user base when it comes to front-end development; the salient features of bootstrap make it more popular.
So, let’s have a quick look on the details of Bootstrap and then Bootstrap Alternatives which make the competition tough for Boostrap.
What is Bootstrap?
Bootstrap is a popular and intuitive CSS framework for developing fast responsive websites. Bootstrap is Open-source and also provides a customizable and responsive mobile-first experience with a responsive grid system. Hence, bootstrap simplifies the development of WebPages.
Bootstrap has HTML and CSS-based design templates for various components such as tables, buttons, typography, forms, navigation, etc.
Here is a list of Bootstrap components:
- Labels
- Dropdown menu
- Breadcrumb
- Navigation bars
- Pagination
- Button groups etc.
Bootstrap features:
- Mobile friendly
- Easy to use
- Flexible
- Offers seamless integration
- Responsive with browser compatibility
- Pre-styled components and a good grid system
- Detailed documentation
- Inbuilt JavaScript plug-ins
But, nothing remains unique in this modern world. Meaning, everything in this world has its alternatives. As a result, we have put up some fine details of bootstrap alternatives that have been receiving rave reviews throughout 2021 and are growing quite popular going into 2022.
Top 24 Bootstrap Alternatives to watch out for in 2022
1. Bulma
Bulma is a modern CSS framework that is free, open-source, and provides competitive frontend components. In fact, Bulma is one of the popular alternatives of Bootstrap because; developers can easily create responsive web interfaces without prior knowledge of CSS. Further, Bulma has a comprehensive flexbox grid, and a wide range of colors, and is also helpful in building good-looking websites with ease.
Since the design is based on a mobile-first approach; the response time is fast and 100%. Bulma is rich in components, modular, easy to run, compatible, and comes with proper documentation.
2. Skeleton:
Skeleton is a responsive, lightweight boilerplate and a CSS framework. It has a 12-column fluid grid, consisting of rows and columns. Skeleton is also built keeping in mind the mobile framework. It is easy to start and requires the least compilation. Since Skeleton styles only major HTML elements, it is best suitable for a small project.
In addition, Skeleton considers the layout as the actual attraction, despite the screen size. Further, it also offers basic components for the developers such as forms, lists, buttons, tables, etc. The grid system in skeleton fits all types of screens – small, medium, and large. Also, there is an automatic resizing of column width with a change in a single line of CSS. The syntax is easily implemented in the skeleton. In short, it provides responsive styles in a simple way.
3. Pure.css
This bootstrap alternative is known as a light-weighted framework. Basically, Pure.css is apt for small projects because it has a cluster of CSS frameworks. Since, the design, especially for mobile devices, developers can easily build responsive layouts with the use of menus, grids, forms, buttons, etc. Despite of being tiny in size, Pure.css provides great performance and output.
Pure.css also keeps file sizes small, and each line of CSS code is done properly. Further, it has minimum styles and helps developers write application styles on top of it. Elements made by Pure appear good on all the screen sizes. Additionally, Pure also has a flat design, which means, it is simpler to append newer CSS rules. In fact, with just a few lines of CSS code, the entire visual becomes customizable.
Also Read: Top Front-end Frameworks
4. Cardinal
Cardinal is a mobile-first, CSS framework that is suitable for developing applications and responsive websites. It also provides high performance, maintainability, and scalability.
There are various helper classes for better application of styles which indeed lessen the time for development. So, it’s easy for developers to create a prototype, scale, and also build a CSS. Hence, the developers have the flexibility of designing and creativity to the developers.
Further, Cardinal works well with almost every advanced browser. The mobile-first and the CSS box model in Cardinal is certainly considered a good alternative to Bootstrap because, it has modern-day styles, useful mixins, and variables. The flexible grid system, utility classes, and gzip compression are undoubtedly some of the best features of Cardinal according to developers.
5. Groundwork
Groundwork is a known, responsive, HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript framework that is useful in developing scalable web applications. Groundwork has an efficient fluid grid layout system that is both adaptive and configurable; also it can work with nests. In addition, Groundwork is compatible with all types of devices and is also easily available. Above all, it has good support for semantic markup with ARIA attribute selectors and others.
Groundwork is built with SaaS, a powerful pre-processor that basically keeps source code free from vendor prefixes. Further, it provides rapid prototyping, responsive text, and is flexible. Developers can easily generate their own styles and bolt for other functionalities.
6. PowertoCSS
PowertoCSS is a light weighted front-end framework that is designed for front-end development. This framework comes in handy while building grids for websites. Further, a developer can also create personalized with the help of PowertoCSS. The framework design is based on Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS. Because of easy class names, it has a simple learning curve.
Since the framework is small in size and light-weighted, it is fast in performance and loading criteria. Hence, developers find it easy to handle because of its good development speed. PowertoCSS is flexible and also customizable as per requirements. In addition, user-oriented themes are added while developing a website. At last, being a simple, light, and responsive tool, PowertoCSS offers different functionalities.
7. Mueller
Another good alternative to Bootstrap, Mueller is a modular and responsive grid system. Together with SaaS and Compass frameworks, Mueller provides effective frontend framework functionalities. It also helps developers with grid creation via a grid function. Further, Mueller helps in the addition of classes straight to the elements in order to keep the HTML elements transparent and neat. Additionally, it has one default grid and other pre-media grids if necessary.
Developers can extend their media grids to pre-defined layouts. Further, this grid system is known to be ideal for building adaptive and responsive layouts. Also, there is complete access over media queries, column width, gutter width, and baseline grid, for customizing those components. Fractional classes can also be added in addition to layout and grids. Further templates are added instead of presentational classes in the markup.
8. Bootflat
Bootflat is a popular, open-source, Flat UI KIT framework that is meant to build attractive web designs. The developers can easily create web apps in an efficient manner with the help of Bootflat. Bootflat is compatible with most modern-day browsers. Further, Components of this framework are built with HTML5 and CSS3. Also, there is an in-built panel of color schemes for the best customization.
Bootflat is developed on the foundation of the fundamentals of Bootstrap, with a flat design. It is trustworthy and scalable for developers who wish to have proper off-screen navigation with the best performance and lower size. This bootstrap alternative also has a mobile-first focus and there are plug-ins that offer great performance.
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9. Materialize
Materialize is an advanced and responsive front-end framework that is based on the idea of material design. It is a UI component library that is built using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Further, Materialize follows web design principles such as device independence, browser portability, etc. It also fastens the development time with the help of default styling and customized components.
Materialize also makes most of the components and animations of Material design to offer effective feedback to users. The UX is collaborative and easy to work with because; there are proper documentation and code examples that help novices to learn faster. Further, the Materialize framework also provides a drag-out mobile menu, card design, ripple effect animation, etc.
10. Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is a utility-first, front-end framework which helps in developing modern-day websites without leaving the HTML. It has a variety of classes that help in developing any design, directly to the markup.
In addition, Tailwind is a customizable, low-level CSS framework that operates on the basis of utility classes. Utility classes in Tailwind are responsive in nature because it has less stuff in their CSS bundle. Further, Tailwind is a component-friendly framework, so the developers have a good chance to make their own components. Since tailwind is a low-level framework, you can create anything you wish for. Here, one can create different visuals with the same combinations.
11. HTML5 Boilerplate
HTML5 Boilerplate is more like a front-end template that includes HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Using HTML5 Boilerplate, developers can easily create WebPages or Web Apps with ease, speed, and robustness. This template may not be a complete alternative to bootstrap but, being a template it has certain advantages of replacing Bootstrap.
The design for HTML5 Boilerplate is made keeping in mind the advanced thought process. The Boilerplate has inbuilt support for web page printing. The documentation is simple to understand and hence reading each line of code is easy from the developer’s perspective. Also, Boilerplate does not have any layout or component modules and is useful for creating HTML5 websites with cross-browser compatibility.
12. UIkit
Is a modular and responsive framework that is simple to use. UIkit is light-weighted. Here, there are many components that are in connection with HTML markup or JavaScript code. Further, it can create pixel-perfect web layouts and powerful, fast web interfaces. The kit includes a set of files with all the major UI components like icons, fonts, documentation, design files, etc.
UIkit offers interoperable CSS pre-processing with SaaS or less. There is an in-built icon library that offers support for right-to-left languages. UIkit is a simple framework, it has very few design components and developers can easily make a switch between components as per their requirements. Lastly, the framework also lets designers use the modular approach for creating the applications.
13. MetroUI
This bootstrap alternative is a quick and effective front-end framework that follows the fundamentals of Metro Design Language from Windows. MetroUI is a free and open-source framework, with a components library that is based on HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
Further, the framework also has a JavaScript Library with the name M4Q, which comes as a substitute for jQuery and helps create many JS functionalities.
MetroUI also offers inbuilt internationalization support that is seamlessly operable with other Javascript frameworks such as Angular, Vue etc. Developers find Metro UI easy to use as deep JS knowledge is not necessary. Further, MetroUI provides full code access on GitHub with a free license.
14. Element
Element is a component-based, desktop UI library that is specifically useful to develop Vue applications. The library consists of reusable and pre-defined components Vue.js components. The prominent features of this framework are its effectiveness, reliability, feedback, and controllability.
Further in Element, every UI entity is an Element-based project including the building of blocks. Customizing styles is also done with the pre-processing feature. Additionally, Element has flexible themes, a laravel starter kit, inbuilt internationalization support, and Wireframing integration. Element has a seamless code integration with Sketch/Axure.
15. Onsen UI
Onsen UI is a front-end framework that helps developers build mobile apps using web technologies. It is meant for web, mobile and hybrid apps. The framework has all the fundamental UI components that are necessary for creating a mobile app user experience. Further, onsen UI also has customizable themes which indeed provide its users with a native-like experience.
Onsen UI has a strong bond with other frameworks such as Angular, jQuery, and Vue.js. The CSS component is written in Cssnext. Onsen UI framework is one of the most efficient ways to build HTML5 hybrid and mobile web applications. Developers enjoy streamlined development while using Onsen UI. It is also easy to use and also includes automatic styling and offers a native feel with a lot of ready-to-use components.
16. Cirrus
Cirrus is a component and utility base SCSS framework. It is completely responsive with effective controls and a simple structure. The integration of the framework with any current design is easily done. In general, Cirrus is useful for rapid prototyping.
Further, it also provides a simple responsive layout breakpoint for all types of devices. There are two modern alternatives for layout- flexbox and grid.
Since, Cirrus is an open-source, free-to-use framework, developers find it easy for their mobile or web-based projects. It is important to note that, Cirrus has high-end interoperability with Vue.js.
17. MontageJS
MontageJS is an open-source frontend framework that is meant for developing a scalable single-page application. It is a JS framework that simplifies the development of HTML5 applications by applying native applications framework fundamentals. In addition, it also focuses on code optimization and organization.
18. Semantic UI
Semantic UI is a popular framework that is assisting developers in the creation of a responsive and attractive layout using HTML. It considers classes and words as interchangeable fundamentals. Semantic UI uses a simplistic behavior to activate the functionality. It also helps in writing human-readable HTML code instead of verbose methods.
Semantic UI is meant to work with various platforms and devices. It has extendable theming, and easy debugging of JS plug-ins. Further, the feature of performance logging helps in finding out bottlenecks via stack backtraces.
19. Flexbox Grid
Flexbox Grid is a grid system known for its flex display property. It is similar to Bootstrap’s flex base system. Here, you can make your web page fluid and responsive. The system is easy to learn and grasp because of its simple syntax. So, all a developer needs to remember is row, content, and column.
It also has an auto width feature where a developer can add a number of automatic sizing columns to a row. Further, Flexbox Grid works better in a single dimension i.e. either a row or a column. It also provides space distribution as an ideal option for the arrangement of components in a single column or single row.
20. Foundation
Foundation is an advanced responsive front-end framework powered by Zurb. The framework is meant to be effective for any type of medium or device. Foundation assists developers in creating a beautiful responsive website, email, or app that will be compatible with any device. In addition, the foundation is customizable, readable, and semantic in nature.
There are constant updates available to garner the latest features of the Foundation. The framework also consists of major components such as grids, buttons, typography, and major UI fundamentals. Foundation handles HTML emails with great effectiveness.
21. Inuit CSS
Inuit CSS is an extensible, scalable, Sass-based front-end framework. This framework is meant for large projects because it provides a perfect architectural framework on which the different components are built. It is free of styles and is useful to leverage all types of projects. It is a mixture of OOCSS and BEM frameworks.
In general, Inuit is a completely structured CSS framework going by the best architectural methods. Further, one can download Inuit CSS and save it into a project’s CSS directory. It also features a grid demo, which is a very small framework that goes by the mobile-first framework. Generally, developers use Inuit to work on small-size screens with less effort.
22. Jeet
Jeet is a popular grid framework for SaaS-based project development. These grids have semantic markup depending on the utilization of mixins. It also facilitates showcasing of a page grid without any nesting needs. While using Jeet, developers can build fast applications with less code and more flexibility.
Since the source code is lightweight with only a responsive grid system, it is easy to use and learn. It is an alternative responsive framework that is focusing on markup, style, and semantics. Jeet has a flexible approach without any additional markup style and no restriction to any column size.
23. INK
INK is a popular and fast web designing framework that is useful for web interfaces. It also has a fluid and responsive grid, interactive elements, common UI elements, etc. It has all inbuilt Bootstrap features such as typography, mobile-first styling, JavaScript plug-ins, etc. Further, there are preformatted cookbooks that allow developers to customize a theme and start using it.
INK is an interface kit for faster development and easy usage. There is a good combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for modern apps, creating layouts, displaying common UI components, and feature-based on content and user-friendliness. Given these reasons, it’s fair to say that INK is developer-friendly.
24. Kickstart
Kickstart CSS is an important library that has many components to convert it into a fully functional UI framework. It is also known as a kickstart boilerplate library. Kickstart is faster and lighter compared to bootstrap. Also, kickstart is being used in production websites for a long time. It is an ultra-lean, open-source framework that helps developers in the rapid development of web pages.
HTML Kickstart is a subtle collection of HTML5, CSS, and jQuery files. These files are ideal for developers as they; provide a wonderful start to their project creation. Further, there are different elements like form styles, superfish style menus, CSS buttons, typography fundamentals, slideshows, etc. which helps in creating the best UI elements. Kickstart is lightweight and doesn’t need jQuery to operate.
Ending Note: Bootstrap Alternatives
The bootstrap community has loyal support but, the above-mentioned frameworks & libraries are growing their own user base and it will only get stronger in upcoming years.
Obviously, the bootstrap alternatives framework you choose for your project will depend on parameters like budget, timelines, skills, etc. So, if you find yourself in a pickle while choosing any of these frameworks contact us!
FAQ’s: Bootstrap Alternatives
What are Bootstrap templates?
Bootstrap templates are basically the blueprints, scaffolds, or base layouts that provide no custom styling past what is already in the base bootstrap framework.
Where can I find free Bootstrap templates?
One can find free Bootstrap templates on websites such as HeroBiz, Arsha, Flexstart, NiceAdmin, etc.
