15 Top Bootstrap Alternatives For Frontend Developers in 2024

Coursesity Team

Mar 12, 2024 • 13 min read

What is Bootstrap?

Bootstrap is a powerful front-end framework used for building modern websites and web applications. It's open-source and free to use, providing various HTML and CSS templates for UI components like buttons and forms. Bootstrap also supports JavaScript extensions.

With the help of this framework, developers can create stunning front-end interfaces. Additionally, they can leverage the CSS classes defined in Bootstrap to further customize the appearance of their content. Bootstrap 4 and 5 have gained immense popularity among web developers, with many recommending learning Bootstrap as a beginner.

However, numerous alternatives to Bootstrap are on par or even better suited for some users, depending on their specific requirements. At Coursesity, we have curated some of the best frameworks like Bootstrap and Bootstrap competitors through extensive research and analysis.

1. Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework like Bootstrap that prioritizes building any design directly in your markup using utility classes like flex, pt-4, text-focus, and rotate-90. It is highly customizable because it is built around these utility classes, making it a strong alternative to Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor.

The Tailwind CSS IntelliSense extension for VS Code is a valuable asset, as it helps prevent mistakes by providing autocompletion for class names and more. Tailwind CSS offers a modern, high-quality CSS framework with composable utilities and variants controlled by CSS variables. It supports current state selectors like focus-visible and provides many other features, although it does not include any built-in UI components by default.

If you want to learn the valuable skill of Tailwind CSS, we highly recommend taking the "Tailwind CSS From Scratch" course by Brad Traversy on Udemy. In this introductory course, you will build great-looking layouts quickly and efficiently using Tailwind CSS utility classes.

GitHub Rating: 74.2k stars

Features: Tailwind CSS prioritizes utility-first with customizable classes for building designs directly in the markup. It offers composable transitions, and CSS variables, and supports modern state selectors.
Pros: Highly customizable, prevents class name clutter, excellent for building modern designs.
Cons: Lacks default components.

2. Bulma

It is an open-source framework like Bootstrap that provides ready-to-use front-end components for building responsive websites. It is heavily inspired by Bootstrap and based on the modern Flexible Box Module, known as Flexbox, making it a viable Bootstrap competitor.

Bulma is a mobile-first framework that utilizes utility functions to calculate colors and other values. It is actively maintained and offers an extensive collection of components suitable for coding any type of website.

One of the major cons of Bulma is that it is a pure CSS framework, so JavaScript plugins are missing, and the Flexbox implementation is not suitable for bidimensional layouts. However, if you are someone who does not rely heavily on JS plugins and primarily uses linear layouts, Bulma can be considered a comprehensive alternative to Bootstrap.

Suppose you want to learn the valuable skill of working with the mobile-first Bulma framework. In that case, we highly recommend taking the "Master Bulma CSS Framework" course by Jeppe Schaumburg Jensen on Udemy. In this course, you will master the latest version of Bulma and create real projects and themes while learning HTML, web design, and coding.

GitHub Rating: 47.7k stars

Features: Bulma is an open-source framework heavily inspired by Bootstrap and based on the Flexbox module.
Pros: Mobile-first, extensive selection of components for building responsive websites.
Cons: Pure CSS framework, lacks JavaScript plugins for bidirectional layouts.

3. Materialize

It’s a front-end framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor based on Google's Material Design principles. It incorporates custom components and provides default stylings, offering a unified user experience across all platforms with its single, responsive framework.

Material Design is a design language that combines classic principles of successful design with innovation and technology. One of the downsides of Materialize is that it does not support older versions of web browsers, and sometimes it does not handle certain nestings of components properly, resulting in an odd appearance.

Overall, Materialize is a highly responsive framework like Bootstrap that saves you from coding everything from scratch, making it a viable alternative to Bootstrap.

GitHub Rating: 38.8k stars

Features: Materialize is based on Google's Material Design, providing default stylings and a unified responsive framework.
Pros: Offers a cohesive user experience across platforms.
Cons: Limited support for older web browsers.

4. Pure

Pure is a lightweight CSS framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor designed with a mobile-first approach. Built on Normalize.css, it provides styling and design to native HTML components, as well as the most popular UI elements.

Pure is favored by minimalists due to its incredibly small size; the complete set of modules weighs in at just 3.7KB minified and gzipped. With its grids and menus, you can easily create beautiful responsive designs for all screen sizes.

The main selling point of this framework like Bootstrap is undoubtedly its minimalism and compact size. The only caveat is that it offers a predetermined set of templates and designs, which may limit customization options compared to other alternatives to Bootstrap.

GitHub Rating: 23.2k stars

Features: Pure is a lightweight CSS framework designed with mobile responsiveness in mind.
Pros: Extremely small, provides design and styling for common UI components.
Cons: Limited set of templates and designs.

5. UI Kit

UIKit is a modular front-end framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor designed to develop fast and powerful web interfaces. You can utilize it with HTML or JavaScript based on your preference. It offers built-in support for right-to-left languages and includes an extensive library of components. This framework like Bootstrap provides a convenient solution for designing web layouts.

One of the advantages of UIKit is that it offers a wide range of UI components, even more than Bootstrap. It also includes unique components like Totop, Thumbnav, and more. Considering its rich set of resources, UIKit can be regarded as an ideal alternative to Bootstrap.

However, it's worth noting that UIKit currently has a significant number of open issues on GitHub, indicating that it may not be as polished as other alternatives to Bootstrap for developing high-level applications at the moment.

GitHub Rating: 18k stars

Features: UI Kit is a modular front-end framework for developing fast and powerful web interfaces.
Pros: Abundance of UI components, and compatibility with right-to-left languages.
Cons: Some open issues on GitHub, indicating potential polish issues.

6. Material UI

Material UI is a highly customizable React UI framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor focused solely on React components for faster and easier web development. Each customization is performed in a JavaScript environment, including styling, using the CSS-in-JS approach, which is very common in React applications.

One of the highlighting features of this framework like Bootstrap is that it is based on Google's Material Design, offering a variety of reusable components that can be incorporated as needed. A major drawback of Material UI is its limitation to only React-based components. Additionally, it uses CSS-in-JS (a technique of writing CSS styling in JavaScript), which may not be suitable for all developers.

If you are someone who works exclusively with React-based applications, then Material UI can be a viable alternative to Bootstrap for your needs.

If you want to learn Material UI, we highly recommend taking the "Implement High Fidelity Designs with Material-UI and ReactJS" course by Zachery Reece on Udemy. In this introductory course, you will bridge the gap between Design & Development and bring detailed designs to life with Material UI and React.

GitHub Rating: 89.9k stars

Features: Material UI is a highly customizable React UI framework based on Google's Material Design.
Pros: Reusable components for faster web development.
Cons: Limited to React-based components, utilizes CSS-in-JS for styling.

7. Spectre CSS

Spectre is a modern CSS framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor extensively used for extensible development. It provides essential styles for typography and elements, a flexbox-based responsive layout system, pure CSS components, and utilities with best practices for coding and a consistent design language.

Highlighting features of this framework like Bootstrap include flexbox support, fast responsiveness, and mobile-friendliness. Spectre also comprises a plethora of components such as avatars, chips, cards, modals, navigation, toasts, badges, and more. Overall, Spectre CSS can be considered a viable alternative to Bootstrap.

GitHub Rating: 11.2k stars

Features: Spectre is a modern CSS framework offering essential styles for typography and components, along with a flexbox-based responsive layout.
Pros: Provides a wide range of components for building modern interfaces.
Cons: Limited GitHub rating.

8. Luxa CSS

Luxa CSS is a minimalist's choice for a framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor. It is extremely lightweight and can be easily implemented in any modern development environment. Built from scratch using Sass and JavaScript, Luxa features a simple modifier system, such as .has-dflex, and straightforward class names like .lx-btn or .lx-row.

If you're looking for a CSS framework like Bootstrap to use in a very light and minimal capacity within any development context, Luxa can be considered a credible alternative to Bootstrap.

GitHub Rating: 167 stars

Features: Luxa CSS is a minimalist and lightweight framework designed from scratch using Sass and JavaScript.
Pros: Effortless implementation in any modern setting.
Cons: Limited GitHub rating.

9. MUI

MUI is a lightweight CSS framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor that incorporates all the essential code for utilizing MUI components on the web and across email clients. Additionally, it is also developing React and WebComponents libraries to provide developers with greater flexibility on the web.

MUI is an open-source framework like Bootstrap heavily influenced by Polymer, Bootstrap, and Ink. Its Grid layout system greatly simplifies mobile development. The main selling point of this framework like Bootstrap is its lack of external dependencies and responsiveness.

GitHub Rating: 4.5k stars

Features: MUI is a lightweight CSS framework with no external dependencies, suitable for web and email use.
Pros: Incorporates essential code for utilizing MUI components, and offers flexibility for web development.
Cons: Limited GitHub rating.

10. Milligram

Milligram is a mobile-friendly framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor developed with the goal of better performance and higher efficiency. It utilizes fewer CSS resets, resulting in cleaner code.

One of the highlighting features of this framework like Bootstrap is its use of the CSS Flexible Box Layout Module standard, which simplifies working with grid layouts compared to other alternatives to Bootstrap.

Milligram is compatible with a variety of modern web browsers such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and more. However, a caveat is that since it is not designed to work on older browser versions, you'll need to use the latest versions for optimal performance.

GitHub Rating: 10.1k stars

Features: Milligram is a mobile-friendly framework with a focus on better execution and efficiency.
Pros: Uses CSS Flexible Box Layout Module for simpler grid-based layouts.
Cons: Limited support for older web browser versions.

11. Cirrus

Cirrcus is a modular, responsive, and component-driven SCSS framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor aimed at providing excellent, hassle-free styling. The primary goal of this framework is to help developers model their ideas as quickly as possible with a vast array of components.

Regarding its extensive suite of components, Cirrus not only provides base styles for page layouts but also a variety of different components. It works immediately with minimal styling. From there, you can add components and customize using utility classes to truly make it your own.

Cirrus also gives you the flexibility to choose between Grid and Flexbox layouts. It comes with a wide range of classes that assist in developing beautiful-looking components rapidly without creating your own designs from scratch.

GitHub Rating: 1.3k stars

Features: Cirrus is a modular, responsive SCSS framework aimed at providing beautiful and hassle-free styling.
Pros: Extensive suite of components for rapid development of ideas.
Cons: Limited GitHub rating.

12. Metro 4 (Metro UI CSS)

Metro 4 is a front-end open-source framework like Bootstrap and a Bootstrap competitor that comes bundled with a JavaScript library called M4Q, which serves as a substitute for jQuery and forms the basis for many JS-based functionalities.

With this framework like Bootstrap, you can design a plethora of web layouts as it contains well over 100 user interface components and 500+ built-in icons. Metro 4 can easily be considered a viable alternative to Bootstrap due to its rich features.

However, one caveat is that this framework has opposition to the skeuomorphic design approach, which results in applications using this approach completely losing their appeal.

GitHub Rating: 7k stars

Features: Metro 4 is a front-end framework with over 100 user interface components and a JS library for various functionalities.
Pros: Offers a plethora of UI components and built-in icons.
Cons: The skeuomorphic approach may not appeal to all applications.

13. Foundation

Foundation stands out as a highly responsive and comprehensive ecosystem of front-end frameworks, simplifying the process of crafting stunning responsive websites, applications, and emails that seamlessly adapt to any device.

Semantic, coherent, and fully customizable, the Foundation empowers developers to create designs that are not only visually appealing but also adaptable to various screen sizes. Starting with small devices, developers can gradually enhance the complexity of their designs, ensuring a fully responsive experience layer by layer.

Foundation offers several advantages, including support for right-to-left languages and compatibility with Ruby on Rails. Moreover, its modular structure allows for easy customization to meet specific project requirements.

However, it's important to acknowledge that the Foundation's extensive feature set comes with a learning curve. Utilizing this framework effectively requires a deep understanding and patience, particularly due to its reliance on an opinionated CSS preprocessor, Sass.

GitHub Rating: 29.5k stars

Features: A highly responsive and detailed network of front-end frameworks. Semantic, logical, flexible, and fully customizable.
Pros: Support for right-to-left languages.
Cons: Requires deep knowledge and persistence. Uses an opinionated CSS preprocessor (Sass).

14. Cardinal CSS

Cardina emerges as a distinctive CSS framework meticulously crafted for performance and adaptability. This framework empowers front-end web developers to effortlessly design, construct, scale, and maintain CSS for responsive websites, interfaces, and applications.

One of Cardinal's standout features is its commitment to giving developers full control over the planning and creativity of their projects. By eschewing numerous aesthetic design choices often found in other CSS frameworks, Cardinal offers a clean slate for developers to realize their vision, distinguishing it from mere UI toolboxes.

Cardinal boasts comprehensive browser support, ensuring seamless performance across major platforms like Google Chrome, Safari, Android, and Mozilla Firefox. Additionally, its scalability facilitates easy expansion of codebases as projects evolve.

However, it's worth noting that Cardinal's lack of active maintenance stands as its most significant drawback.

GitHub Rating: 718 stars

Features: Highly responsive and detailed network of front-end frameworks.
Pros: Leaves the design and creativity of the project up to the user. Support for major web browsers. Easy scalability of codebases.
Cons: Not currently maintained.

15. Skeleton CSS

For those seeking a minimalist approach to front-end development, Skeleton presents itself as a compelling option. Designed as a collection of standard CSS files rather than a comprehensive UI framework, Skeleton serves as an ideal starting point for small projects requiring only a handful of standard HTML elements.

Utilizing media queries for responsiveness, Skeleton ensures adaptability across devices while offering a streamlined approach to styling. Unlike Bootstrap, Skeleton prides itself on its lightweight nature, boasting a source code of just over 200 lines.

However, it's important to note that Skeleton lacks active maintenance, posing a significant drawback. Additionally, the security of the Skeleton website is currently questionable. Furthermore, its use of outdated markup for layout, such as floats and clear fixes, may present compatibility issues in modern web development environments.

GitHub Rating: 18.9k stars

Feature: Lightweight Starting Point for Simple Projects
Pros: Lightweight framework with only over 200 lines in its source code.
Cons: No longer maintained. Uses outdated markup for layout.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. We trust that our curated courses will assist you in selecting the ideal course for learning Bootstrap. If you're eager to delve deeper, you can delve into the free Bootstrap courses available.

If you've reached this point, you're clearly eager to learn more. Here at Coursesity, we are committed to enriching people with knowledge on subjects they are passionate about. Here are some other topics that we believe will capture your interest!

FAQs

1. What is Bootstrap and why is it popular?

Bootstrap is a powerful open-source front-end framework providing HTML/CSS templates for UI components. It has gained immense popularity among web developers for building responsive websites and apps.

2. What are the key advantages and disadvantages of using Bootstrap?

Advantages: Wide range of UI components, responsive design, and easy customization. Disadvantages: Steep learning curve, potential bloat from unused components.

3. What are some top alternatives to Bootstrap mentioned in the blog?

Top alternatives include Tailwind CSS, Bulma, Materialize, Pure CSS, UIKit, Material UI, Spectre CSS, and Foundation among others.

4. How does Tailwind CSS differ from Bootstrap?

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework that prioritizes building designs directly in markup using utility classes. Unlike Bootstrap, it lacks built-in UI components by default.

5. What is the key selling point of the Bulma framework?

Bulma's key selling point is its extensive selection of components for building responsive websites while being a mobile-first, open-source framework inspired by Bootstrap.