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77 Comments

🤔 CSS frameworks... which is #1?

Hey IndieHackers! 👋

Let's vote on our favorite CSS frameworks! This can help you and many others decide on which path to choose for their next project.

It would be awesome if you could comment below 👇 about why you 💗 your framework/library.

Which framework is #1? 🏆
  1. Bootstrap
  2. Bulma
  3. TailwindCSS
  4. UIkit
  5. Materialize
  6. PureCSS
  7. Skeleton
  8. Milligram
  9. Did I miss one? Sorry 😅. Tell us in the comments below 👇
Vote
  1. 15

    Never used anything except Bootstrap

  2. 9

    TailwindCSS for me. Overall very simple and easy-to-use. 👍👍

    1. 1

      As a beginner in frontend, Im really happy with Vuetify that we have used to build XgeneCloud desktop app & website.

      And it has made it possible to build slightly complex layouts easily (as a beginner)

      Here is a demo : https://youtu.be/ETEEcY4mmEg

  3. 5

    Two months ago I would have voted Bootstrap, but now I’m in the Tailwind CSS camp 100%! It’s so much easier to “get stuff done” with Tailwind. The learning curve is slightly steeper but also shorter; once you learnt the basics you’re good to go. You don’t have to learn about every component like Bootstrap.

    I converted my blog and landing page last weekend to Tailwind, here’s some thoughts on it! Both are open source, too, so feel free to take a look.

    1. 2

      That's a very nice article. You have a style in writing.

      1. 1

        Thank you, I appreciate it!

    2. 2

      Same! I while back I thought the only framework was Bootstrap but then once I saw tailwindCSS I was like: 🤩

  4. 4

    Wow, surprised tailwind is so high up

  5. 4

    TailwindCSS is by far #1!
    Takes a small learning curve but once you get past that (which goes pretty fast) your progress will skyrocket!

  6. 3

    Hey! Why is Tailwind so nice? I see only good references about it but don't know why 😱

    1. 2

      It gives you way more control over Bootstrap, and you mostly don't need to worry about overwriting classes in your CSS. Utility design is getting popular, to a point where Bootstrap are going in the direction for their latest version.

      https://blog.getbootstrap.com/2020/06/16/bootstrap-5-alpha/#utilities-api

      1. 1

        Thanks! Trying to understand it better 😊

  7. 3

    We've been using Bootstrap up until recently and switched to TailwindCSS for our latest project and we're not looking back!

    1. 1

      Same here! Tailwind is so simple. Why would you go back?

  8. 3

    For me,
    it used to be bootstrap but then I moved completely to react (even for static sites).

    Now Ant design is my go to design system.
    I've become familiar with it and it takes me much less time to build with ant ui components.

    If It's a light weight project, I go with reactstrap which is bootstrap for react.

    1. 1

      Awesome! I’ll check it out some time!

  9. 2

    Tailwind because I'm a slave to the latest HackerNews trend.

  10. 2

    The poll should also have an option for "Plain css, no framework".

    1. 1

      Haha, I thought I was the only one 😅

  11. 2

    Just got tailwind UI too. super happy with it!

  12. 2

    I am a recent TailwindCSS convert. It does feel/look odd at first, but it's liberating, and the fact that it is declarative to some degree makes me feel safer to make changes than with traditional approaches with CSS.

    1. 1

      Very true. Easy to make something quickly and easily.

  13. 2

    https://siimple.xyz/
    I have used Bootstrap for large projects (works great), UIkit ( works great ) and played with most of the others on your list. I am very good at UI but my passion is back-end. So my goal was to have something extremely lightweight and I found it to be, well... siimple. Front-end DEVs are likely to better appreciate one from your list however.

    1. 1

      Nice! that sure looks siimple to use 😉

  14. 2

    Tailwind for me, I love the way of thinking, and the flexibility it gives.

    1. 1

      I understand that. Tailwind has a beautiful way of working.

  15. 2

    Bootstrap has been the go-to framework for me since the beginning. Good to see that it continues to evolve. Although I have dabbled around Bulma and PureCSS for a few side projects.

    1. 1

      Yeah same here. I’ve opened an issue or two on Bulma’s git repo and used the framework just a bit.

  16. 2

    I keep trying frameworks that wants to try and convince me that adding styling directions in the classes list is a good idea, and i always end up going back to keeping the HTML and CSS separate. I write my HTML/JS first, and when it all works, then I style it. Then if I run it out of time, at least I have something that works.... oh, and i have one place to change things...

    1. 1

      Very Inter steins approach! I’ll have to try it some time :)

  17. 1

    Curious that Bonsai CSS wasn't mentioned!

  18. 1

    Nothing wrong with these but ( used always bootstrap ) in personal project I go no framework as you have with bootstrap too much things that you don't need.

    Flex and Grid are just enough to do anything you like.

  19. 1

    The beauty of TailwindCSS is that you don't need to learn CSS.

  20. 1

    For me personally, bootstrap has everything I need from an easy-to-use grid system and modern styling for elements :)

  21. 1

    Tailwind for me, if you have a hard time remembering the class name, here is Tailwind cheat sheet for ya https://nerdcave.com/tailwind-cheat-sheet

    1. 1

      Thanks @mig13! That will help a lot

  22. 1

    I asked a similar question a month or two ago and tailwind was popular... But not this much.

    1. 1

      Interesting. Times are changing I guess 🤷‍♂️

  23. 1

    For React I'm using Material-UI. I set up a theme and and maybe create a few stylized components, and then the only CSS I have to deal with is just inline for general layout and I avoid using class based CSS styling as much as possible.

  24. 1

    Not a CSS framework but if you are using React, consider Chakra UI. Heavily inspired by Tailwind and very customizable but you don't have to sit and make all the basic components all over again

  25. 1

    Is tailwind a good fit for React Apps? And would it conflict with something like Semantic UI or Material UI?

    1. 1

      I posted this above but I'll copy paste it here too:

      "Not a CSS framework but if you are using React, consider Chakra UI. Heavily inspired by Tailwind and very customizable but you don't have to sit and make all the basic components all over again"

      1. 1

        Thanks for this info.

  26. 1

    i primarily use react on the front end and i use Styled Components

  27. 1

    Well, I'm using Material-UI, but I deff will try out Tailwind if everyone is using it...

    I'm wondering if it is because "it looks better", or "it is easy to use" (I don't have that issue particularly... )

    1. 1

      Ok, re-reading me, I look pompous, I mean I don't have that issue because I have a robot that does it for me, not because I think I'm better than anyone!!!

      1. 1

        Got it 😄👍👍

  28. 1

    TailwindCSS by far. It's making bootstrap (Even version 5) look pretty behind the times IMO.

    I say this as someone who really disliked the concept to begin with as I didn't "get it", but decided to see what the hype was about. I'm not sure I could use Bootstrap again, it feels so slow now.

  29. 1

    Wanted to give a shout-out to water.css and mvp.css for quick prototypes and Carbon for an alternative to TailwaindCSS that supports a high-level of accessibility.

    1. 1

      Very cool! I'll have to try them out sometime.

  30. 1

    You forgot semantic UI.
    These days flexbox and pure css with company design will do the trick, pages load much faster as well.

    1. 1

      Oh yeah. Sorry about that 😅

  31. 1

    I’d been thinking about trying tailwind for awhile and dove in a few months ago. It’s great! For years I’d been writing my own utility library that I’d just copy paste into new projects, but I never took the time to make it a true system like tailwind.

    Also highly recommend tailwind UI.

    1. 1

      Cool! I'm working on a new open-source project soon and I'll try it out!

  32. 1

    I've never used Tailwind, so I haven't experienced the framework that's all the rage right now. But I have used Bulma and Bootstrap. Bulma is much more lightweight and less "opinionated" than Bootstrap. You can build a frontend very quickly with it, and it's easier to customize.

    1. 2

      Very true. To be honest, I've never been a big fan of Bootstrap either.

  33. 1

    It might be slightly out of the scope of the questions but as someone who hate css, webflow has been a breath of fresh air. It might not fit well into a continuous workflow but for sporadic page building it is great and I can export the code to integrate into my app

    1. 1

      Nice thinking! 👍

  34. 1

    Boostrap is so easy, but I am tired of see the same components over many web pages, TailwindCSS is a better option for me , you have more options to personalize the components and you can share them with community easily

    1. 1

      Yeah for sure. However Bootstrap is still in 2nd ;)

  35. 1

    There's many missing.
    Look here.

    Here

    1. 1

      Thanks for sharing Michael! Tacit looks pretty neat!

  36. 1

    Depends on if you're just prototyping or making a beautiful sculpture of an app. Bootstrap has ready-made components you can easily customize, while Tailwind dosen't.

    1. 1

      That’s true. There’s already tons of tutorials online out there that use Bootstrap to start quick.

  37. 1

    I personally either use nothing but custom CSS, because of the high customized designs we get.
    Bootstrap for personal use, but hearing so much about Tailwind, trying to get into that now.

  38. 1

    Boostrap still seems the number 1 to me. I have tried TailwindCSS but I just don't get it lol.

    1. 2

      Haha 😂 Everyone’s different

  39. 1

    Great idea! I also have found TailwindCSS pretty cool 😎

  40. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

  41. 2

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      Cool! Thanks for sharing :)

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