The appearance of a web page is the first thing a user will see when interacting with your product. Here is a list of the most powerful and popular tools for creating amazing and beautiful web pages.
Why do you need a CSS framework?
A CSS framework is a set of predefined rules and guidelines for structuring and styling web pages. It provides a foundation for developers to build on, making it easier to create consistent, well-structured websites. CSS frameworks are designed to help developers quickly create responsive websites that look great on any device.
They provide a grid system that allows developers to easily create layouts with columns and rows, as well as other components like buttons, forms, navigation bars, and more. This makes it easier to create pages that look good on desktop and mobile devices.
CSS frameworks also provide a set of predefined classes that can be used to quickly style elements without needing to write custom CSS code. This makes it much faster and easier for developers to get the look they want without having to spend time writing custom code from scratch.
Additionally, many CSS frameworks come with built-in support for popular libraries such as jQuery or Bootstrap, which can be used in conjunction with the framework's classes for even more powerful styling options.
Finally, using a CSS framework helps ensure consistency across different pages on your site by providing predefined styles that can be applied across your entire site. This helps maintain visual consistency between different sections of your site, while also allowing you the flexibility to customize individual elements if necessary.
In this article, we'll discuss the top CSS frameworks of 2021. We'll look at what makes each framework unique and why they're important for businesses looking to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to web development. We will also discuss how these frameworks can help companies save time and money while providing a high-quality product that meets their needs. Finally, we will give some tips on how companies can choose the right framework for their project.
Top CSS Frameworks in 2021
#1 Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is a utility CSS framework for quickly building custom user interfaces. It's a highly customizable, low-level CSS framework that gives developers the power to build completely unique designs without having to worry about the underlying styles of the elements they're working with. With Tailwind, you can create complex and unique designs by simply adding classes to your HTML elements. This makes it a popular choice among front-end developers who want to create custom, responsive websites quickly and efficiently.
Benefits
- Easy to Customize: Tailwind CSS offers a wide variety of utility classes that make it easy to customize your site's appearance without writing any custom CSS.
- Responsive design: Tailwind CSS is built with mobile-first design in mind, making it easy to create responsive designs that look great on any device.
- Lightweight: Tailwind CSS is very lightweight, which makes it quick to load and easy to use.
Disadvantages
- Limited customization options: Tailwind CSS is a utility-first framework, meaning it provides many pre-built classes and components, but it doesn't offer much in terms of customizing the look and feel of your site.
- Poor browser compatibility: Tailwind CSS is not compatible with all browsers, so you may need to use additional libraries or frameworks to ensure your site looks good in all browsers.
- High learning curve: Tailwind CSS has a steep learning curve due to its utility-first approach and the large number of classes available for styling elements. It may take some time to get used to the syntax and understand how it all works together.
#2 Semantic UI
Semantic UI is a development framework that helps developers create beautiful and responsive layouts using user-friendly HTML. It is a front-end framework designed to help developers quickly and easily create user interfaces that are both aesthetically pleasing and functionally sound.
Semantic UI provides a comprehensive set of tools for creating web applications with an intuitive and consistent design language. Basically, Semantic UI is built on the principles of semantic markup. This means that instead of writing code to define the structure and appearance of elements on a page, developers can use HTML tags to describe their content in terms of meaning.
For example, instead of writing code to define the appearance or behavior of an element, they can simply use the tag
Benefits
- Easy to use: The semantic interface is designed to be intuitive and easy to learn, making it a great choice for developers of all skill levels.
- Responsive design: Semantic UI was built with responsive design in mind, so your web pages look great on any device.
- Cross-browser compatibility: Semantic UI works across all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Disadvantages
- Limited browser support: Semantic UI is only supported by modern browsers, so users with older browsers may not be able to use the framework.
- Poor documentation: Semantic UI's documentation is not as comprehensive as other frameworks, making it difficult for developers to find answers to their questions.
- Lack of customization options: The Semantic UI doesn't offer many customization options, which can make it difficult to create a unique design for your website or app.
#3Bulma
Bulma is an open source CSS framework based on Flexbox and built with Sass. It's a modern, responsive, and lightweight framework that allows developers to create beautiful websites quickly. It's designed to be easy to use and customize, making it a great choice for experienced developers and beginners alike.
Benefits
- Easy to learn: Bulma has a simple syntax that makes it easy for developers of all levels to get up and running quickly.
- Responsive design: Bulma's responsive design makes it easy to create websites that look great on any device or screen size.
- Lightweight: Bulma's small file size makes it fast to load, which helps improve user experience and SEO rankings.
Disadvantages
- Limited customization options: Although there are some customization options available in Bulma, they are limited compared to other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation that offer more flexibility in customizing the look and feel of your website.
- Lack of support for older browsers: As with most modern frameworks, some features may not be supported in older browsers like Internet Explorer 8.
- Limited Documentation: Although there is some documentation available, it can be difficult for beginners who are just starting out with web development.
#4 Materialize
Materialize is a modern front-end framework based on Google's Material Design language. It provides a comprehensive set of components and tools to create responsive web applications with a consistent appearance. It is built with Sass, JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3. Materialize offers an intuitive user interface that makes it easy to quickly create beautiful, functional websites.
Benefits
- Easy to use: The intuitive user interface makes it easy for developers to quickly create beautiful websites without needing to learn complex coding languages.
- Responsive design: The framework was designed with mobile-first principles in mind, making it easy for developers to create responsive websites that look great on any device or screen size.
- Cross-browser compatibility: Materialize supports all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer 11+.
Disadvantages
- Limited support for older browsers: Although the framework supports most modern browsers, some features may not be available in older versions such as Internet Explorer 8 or 9 due to lack of support from those browsers rather than the framework itself.
- Limited customization options: While there are some customization options available in Materialize, they are more limited than those offered by other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation.
- Not suitable for large projects: Due to its limited feature set, Materialize may not be suitable for larger projects that require more complex functionality.
#5 Foundation
Foundation is a responsive front-end framework created by ZURB, a product design company. It is an open-source project that helps developers create responsive, accessible, and future-friendly websites and web applications. Foundation provides a comprehensive set of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript tools to help developers quickly create websites and apps that look great on any device.
Benefits
- Responsive design: Foundation makes it easy to create responsive designs that look great on any device or screen size.
- Flexible grid system: Foundation's grid system allows for easy customization of layouts with just a few lines of code.
- Easy to use: Foundation is designed to be easy to use for both experienced and beginner developers.
Disadvantages
- Limited documentation and support: While there are many tutorials available online for using the framework, there isn't much official documentation or support from the creators of the framework itself, which can make it difficult for new users who need help getting started with the framework to get started. structure. structure or solving problems they may encounter when using it.
- Not suitable for complex projects: While Foundation can be used for more complex projects, such as e-commerce sites or web applications, with many features and functionality, its limited feature set means it may not be suitable for these types of projects , like other frameworks. can offer more robust features that are better suited to the task.
- Limited customization options: The flexibility offered by the grid system means you can customize your layout, but there aren't many options when it comes to customizing other aspects like typography or colors, which can limit your ability to create unique designs.
#6 Pure
Pure is an open-source, lightweight, and modular front-end framework for developing responsive web applications. It is designed to provide developers with a consistent and flexible development environment that can be used to create high-quality web applications. Pure is built on top of the popular HTML5 Boilerplate project and provides a comprehensive set of tools for creating responsive websites.
Benefits
- Lightweight: Pure takes up little space, making it ideal for developing lightweight web applications.
- Modular: The framework is highly modular, allowing developers to easily customize their projects by adding or removing components as needed.
- Responsive Design: Pure offers an easy way to create responsive designs that look great on any device or screen size.
Disadvantages
- Limited documentation: Although the documentation provided by the Pure team is comprehensive, it may not be sufficient for some developers looking for more detailed information about how the framework works or how certain features can be implemented in their projects.
- Lack of plugins and add-ons: Although there are some plugins available for the framework, they are limited in number compared to other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation which have more extensive plugin libraries available.
- Limited support: Being an open source project, there may not be as much support available from the community compared to commercial frameworks that have dedicated teams to provide support.
#6 Ulkit
Ulkit is a modern and lightweight front-end framework for developing responsive websites and web applications. It is built on top of the popular jQuery library and provides a comprehensive set of tools for creating interactive user interfaces. Ulkit offers an intuitive and easy-to-use API that makes it simple to create complex layouts with minimal effort. It also provides powerful features such as custom components, animation support, and a wide range of UI elements.
Benefits
- Easy to learn: Ulkit has an intuitive API that makes learning easy even for beginners.
- Responsive design: Ulkit supports responsive design out of the box, allowing developers to create websites that look great on any device or screen size.
- Cross-browser compatibility: Ulkit is compatible with all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer 11+.
Disadvantages
- Limited Documentation: Although there are some tutorials available online to get started with Ulkit, the official documentation is still quite limited compared to other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation which have extensive documentation available online as well as offline resources such as books and tutorials on video available. from third-party providers like Udemy or Lynda.
- No grid system: Unlike other frameworks like Bootstrap that come with their own built-in grid system, Ulkit does not have its own grid system, so developers will need to use Flexbox or CSS Grid if they want a robust grid system for their projects.
#7 CSS Primer
Primer CSS is a modern, lightweight CSS framework developed by GitHub. It is designed to help developers quickly create responsive, accessible, and maintainable web applications. Primer CSS provides a set of basic styles, components, and utilities that make it easy to create consistent designs across projects.
Benefits
- Lightweight: Primer CSS was designed to be lightweight and fast-loading, making it ideal for web applications.
- Responsive design: Primer CSS includes responsive design features like media queries and Flexbox support that make it easy to create responsive layouts for any device or screen size.
- Accessibility: Primer CSS includes accessibility features such as ARIA attributes and color contrast checks that make it easy to create accessible websites that comply with WCAG standards.
Disadvantages
- Limited Browser Support: While Primer CSS supports most modern browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer 11+, some older browsers may not be supported due to their use of newer technologies such as Flexbox or queries media, which are not supported in older versions of these browsers (e.g. IE10).
- Limited components and utilities: Although Primer CSS provides some basic components (e.g. buttons) and utilities (e.g. spacing classes), its library is relatively small compared to other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation which offer more extensive libraries of components and utilities outside of the Box.
- Lack of customization options: Although you can customize the appearance of your project using custom classes and overrides, there are limited options available when compared to other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation that offer more extensive customization options.
#8 Tachyons
Tachyons is a CSS framework that provides a set of tools to help developers create responsive, mobile-first websites quickly and easily. It uses functional CSS, which allows developers to create custom designs without writing any additional code.
Benefits
- Easy to use: Tachyons makes it easy for developers to quickly create responsive websites with minimal effort.
- Lightweight: Tachyons is lightweight and fast, making it ideal for creating high-performance websites.
- Customizable: With its functional CSS approach, developers can customize their designs without having to write additional code.
Disadvantages
- Limited browser support: Tachyons only supports modern browsers such as Chrome and Firefox, so older browsers may not be able to render the site correctly.
- Limited design options: While Tachyons offers some customization options, it doesn't offer the same level of flexibility as other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation.
- Difficult learning curve: Due to its functional CSS approach, learning how to use Tachyons can be difficult for beginners who are not familiar with this type of coding language.
#9 Spectrum
Specter CSS Framework is a lightweight, responsive, and modern CSS framework for creating beautiful websites. It is designed to be easy to use and customize with minimal code and no opinionated design. Specter provides basic styles for typography, forms, buttons, tables, grids, navigation, and more.
Benefits
- Lightweight: Specter takes up a small space of just 10kb, minified and compressed.
- Responsive: Specter was built with a mobile-first approach, so it works well on all devices, from desktops to mobile phones.
- Easy to use: Specter has an intuitive structure that makes it easy to get started quickly, without the need to learn complex concepts or write a lot of code.
Disadvantages
- Limited customization options: Although Specter provides some customization options like color schemes and font sizes, it does not offer the same level of customization as other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation.
- No JavaScript components: Although Specter provides some basic styles for forms and buttons, it does not include any JavaScript components, such as modals or carousels, which are often needed in modern web applications.
- Limited Browser Support: While Specter supports most modern browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, it does not support Internet Explorer 11 or earlier, which may limit its usability in certain cases where IE11 compatibility is necessary.
#10 Milligram
Milligram is a minimalist CSS framework that provides a clean, lightweight foundation for any web project. It was designed to be fast, small and easy to use. Milligram offers a variety of features that make it an ideal choice for developers who want to create modern websites quickly.
Benefits
- Lightweight: Milligram weighs just 2 KB, making it one of the lightest frameworks available.
- Responsive: Milligram has built-in responsive design features, allowing you to easily create mobile-friendly websites.
- Easy to use: Milligram's simple syntax makes it easy for developers of all skill levels to get started using the framework quickly.
Disadvantages
- Limited features: While Milligram offers some basic features, it lacks more advanced options like custom components or plugins that are available in other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation.
- Limited browser support: While most modern browsers are supported by Milligram, some older versions may not be compatible with the framework's codebase due to its minimalist approach and lack of polyfills or replacements for certain features.
- Lack of documentation: Although there is some documentation available on the official website, there is still room for improvement in terms of comprehensive tutorials and guides on how best to use the framework.
#11 Water.css
Water.css is a lightweight CSS framework designed to help developers quickly create beautiful, responsive websites. It is built on top of the popular Sass CSS preprocessor and uses modern web technologies such as Flexbox and CSS Grid. Water.css provides a set of basic styles for typography, forms, buttons, tables, grids, and more that can be easily customized to meet your project needs.
Benefits
- Lightweight: Water.css is very lightweight compared to other frameworks, which makes it easy to use and quick to load on any website or application.
- Responsive design: Water.css provides responsive design features so your website looks great on any device or screen size without needing to write extra code for each device type or screen size individually.
- Easy customization: With its simple syntax and customizable variables, you can easily customize the appearance of your website with just a few lines of code, without having to write complex CSS rules from scratch every time you want to make a change to your website design. or application.
Disadvantages
- Limited features: While Water.css provides some basic features such as typography, forms, buttons, and grids, it does not offer more advanced features such as animations or transitions, which may be needed for more complex websites or applications that require more sophisticated styling options . than Water.css offers.
- Limited Browser Support: As with most frameworks, Water.css only supports modern browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Older browsers may not be able to render certain elements correctly when using this framework.
- Lack of documentation: Although there are some tutorials available online, there is still a lack of comprehensive documentation available for this framework, which makes it difficult for new users who are just starting out with this framework.
#12 Sanitize.css
Sanitize.css is a modern CSS framework designed to help developers write clean, maintainable, and secure code. It provides a set of rules for writing consistent and safe CSS that can be used across multiple projects.
Benefits
- Improved readability: Sanitize.css helps make code more readable by providing consistent formatting and easy-to-follow style rules.
- Increased security: Sanitize.css helps reduce the risk of cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks by ensuring that all user-generated content is properly sanitized before being rendered in the browser.
- Reduced development time: By providing a set of predefined rules, Sanitize.css can help developers save time when writing CSS code as they don't have to worry about manually configuring each rule every time they start a new project or layout design task of page. .
Disadvantages
- Limited customization options: While Sanitize.css provides some flexibility in terms of customizing the ruleset, it does not offer as much freedom as other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation that allow for more extensive customization options when it comes to styling elements on the page or creating complex layouts with ease.
- Lack of support for older browsers: Because Sanitize.css is based on modern web standards such as HTML5 and CSS3, it may not be compatible with older browsers that do not yet fully support these technologies.
- Not suitable for all projects: While Sanitize is great for creating simple websites or apps with minimal styling requirements, it may not be suitable for larger projects that require more complex styling solutions or customizations beyond what the framework offers out of the box.
#13 CSS Picnic
Picnic CSS is a lightweight, responsive, and modern CSS framework designed to help developers create beautiful websites quickly. It offers a wide range of features that make it easy to customize and build websites with minimal effort.
Benefits
- Easy to use: Picnic CSS was designed with simplicity in mind, making it easy for developers of all skill levels to get up and running quickly.
- Responsive design: Picnic CSS is built on a mobile-first approach, ensuring your website looks great on any device or screen size.
- Lightweight: Picnic CSS is incredibly lightweight, meaning your site will load faster than ever!
Disadvantages
- Limited customization options: Although Picnic CSS offers some basic customization options, more advanced users may find the lack of flexibility a limitation when creating complex designs or layouts.
- Limited Browser Support: Currently, Picnic CSS only supports the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge browsers; Older versions are not currently supported.
- Lack of documentation: While there are some useful tutorials available online to get started with Picnic CSS, there is still a lack of comprehensive documentation available for more advanced users who want to make the most of the framework's features and capabilities.
#14 Startup
Bootstrap is a popular CSS framework that provides a comprehensive set of tools for creating responsive web designs. It is an open source project developed by Twitter and released in 2011. Bootstrap makes it easy to create mobile-friendly, modern, and visually appealing websites.
Benefits
- Easy to use: Bootstrap has a simple and intuitive interface that makes it easy for developers to quickly create websites without having to write complex codes.
- Responsive design: Bootstrap allows developers to create responsive designs that look great on any device or screen size.
- Cross-browser compatibility: Bootstrap ensures your website looks the same across all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Disadvantages
- Limited customization options: Although Bootstrap offers a lot of features and components, it doesn't offer as much flexibility as other frameworks when it comes to customizing your website's appearance.
- Poor documentation: Sometimes the official Bootstrap documentation can be difficult to understand due to its lack of clarity and organization.
- Not suitable for large projects: Although Bootstrap is great for small projects, it may not be suitable for larger projects due to its limited customization options and lack of scalability.
#15 Tacitus
Tacit is a lightweight, minimalist CSS framework for creating responsive websites. It provides a set of basic styles and components to help developers quickly create modern, responsive websites.
Benefits
- Lightweight and minimalist: Tacit is designed to be lightweight and minimalist, making it easy to use and quick to carry.
- Responsive design: Tacit provides a set of components designed to be responsive across all devices and screen sizes.
- Easy Customization: The framework allows developers to easily customize the look and feel of their website with just a few lines of code.
Disadvantages
- Limited features: Although Tacit provides some basic features, it does not offer as many features as other frameworks such as Bootstrap or Foundation.
- Limited documentation: Documentation for the framework is limited, making it difficult to quickly introduce the framework to new users.
- No support for older browsers: The framework does not support older browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 or earlier, which may limit its use in certain projects or environments.
#16 Bass
Basscss Framework is a lightweight, open-source framework designed to help developers create responsive websites quickly and easily. It provides a core set of styles for typography, forms, buttons, tables, grids, and navigation that can be extended with custom CSS.
Benefits
- Easy to learn and use: Basscss Framework has a simple syntax that makes it easy to learn and use.
- Lightweight: Basscss Framework is lightweight and fast-loading, making it ideal for creating responsive websites.
- Cross-Browser Compatibility: Basscss Framework is compatible with all major browsers, so you don't need to worry about compatibility issues when developing your website.
Disadvantages
- Limited Customization Options: While the Basscss Framework provides some basic styling options, it doesn't offer much in the way of customization or advanced features like animation or transitions.
- Limited support: As an open source project, there is limited support available for the framework, which can make troubleshooting difficult if you run into any issues using it.
- Not suitable for complex projects: Due to its simplicity, the Basscss Framework may not be suitable for more complex projects that require more advanced features or customization options than what the framework offers out of the box.
#17 Dead Simple Grid
Dead Simple Grid is a lightweight, responsive grid system that helps developers create beautiful, functional websites quickly and easily. It's designed to be simple to use, with minimal code needed to get started.
Benefits
- Easy to learn and use: Dead Simple Grid requires minimal coding knowledge, making it ideal for beginners.
- Responsive design: The framework automatically adjusts the layout of your website based on the size of the user's device or browser window.
- Lightweight: The framework is lightweight and fast-loading, ensuring your site doesn't get bogged down by unnecessary code or bloatware.
Disadvantages
- Limited customization options: Although Dead Simple Grid offers some basic customization options, more advanced users may find it too limiting for their needs.
- No support for older browsers: Due to its reliance on modern web technologies such as Flexbox and CSS Grid, Dead Simple Grid does not support older browsers such as Internet Explorer 8 or earlier versions of Safari or Firefox.
- Limited documentation: While there are some useful tutorials available online, there is limited official documentation available from the creators of Dead Simple Grid, which can make it difficult to quickly and easily introduce new users to the framework.
#18 Flame CSS
Blaze CSS is a lightweight, open-source CSS framework designed to help developers create responsive websites quickly and easily. It is built on the popular Bootstrap framework and offers a wide range of features that make customization and extension easy.
Benefits
- Easy to use: Blaze CSS has an intuitive interface that makes it easy for developers to get up and running quickly.
- Lightweight: Blaze CSS is much lighter than other frameworks, making it ideal for creating fast-loading websites.
- Flexible: Blaze CSS allows developers to customize their designs with ease, making it perfect for creating unique websites.
Disadvantages
- Limited Documentation: Although there are some useful tutorials available online, the official documentation for Blaze CSS is limited compared to other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation.
- Limited Browser Support: Blaze CSS only supports modern browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, so older browsers may not be able to render your site correctly if you exclusively use this framework.
- Lack of plugins and add-ons: While there are some third-party plugins available for Blaze CSS, the selection is much smaller than that available for other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation, which can limit your options when customizing the design of your site.
What is the best CSS framework?
The answer to this question really depends on the individual needs of the project. There is no single “best” CSS framework, as each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
For example, Bootstrap is a popular choice for many developers due to its wide range of features and ease of use. It provides a comprehensive set of tools to create responsive websites with minimal effort. It also includes components like grids, typography, forms, buttons, navigation bars, and more. However, it can be difficult to customize Bootstrap's default styles without writing additional code or using third-party plugins.
Foundation is another popular CSS framework that offers a wide range of features and customization options. It includes components like grids, typography, forms, and buttons that are easy to customize with Sass variables and mix-ins. Foundation also provides out-of-the-box responsive design support with its mobile-first approach. However, it can be difficult to learn if you are new to web development as it requires knowledge of Sass or other preprocessors to make the most of its features.
Bulma is a modern Flexbox-based CSS framework that makes it easy to quickly create responsive layouts without needing to write any custom code or use third-party plugins. It also includes components like grids, typography, forms, and buttons that are easy to customize with simple classes instead of Sass variables or mix-ins like in other frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation. However, Bulma doesn't support JavaScript plugins, so if you need them, you'll have to look elsewhere.
Ultimately, the best CSS framework will depend on your individual needs and preferences when it comes to creating websites or applications quickly and efficiently, while also providing flexibility in terms of customization options available through preprocessors like Sass or Less.
