Top 5 CSS Frameworks In 2021 | By CodeWithWebDev

 Hello, Guy's.

Welcome to CodeWithWebDev's blog.

In this blog, we will see the Top 5 CSS framework's in 2021. This list is prepared according to how I think it is, you might have a different view and you might prefer a different CSS Framework. If you don't agree with it, it's completely fine, you might be comfortable with a different framework or you might not have tried others yet.
So If you think some other Framework should also be there, comment on your thoughts. Also, tell me what Framework you use in the comment section.

What is a Framework?

A framework is a set of pre-written codes, that help's us for faster development. In simple terms, a Framework is a collection of many styles already put together for us so that we can use that and avoid writing big lines of codes. Suppose if we need a button in our site, in our normal CSS we will need to write big lines of codes to style our button, but using a framework if we add those classes we get a pre-styled button and we can make a few changes that we need.

Why use a Framework?

• Avoid reusing code.
• Responsive Design without going deep into Media Queries.
• Clean and systematic code.
• Cross-browser support.
• Faster development, as no need to write more CSS.
• Good Web Designing.

The major reason why you should learn a proper framework is because it's already written you just have to study a few thing's and you're ready. With a proper framework, you don't have to start everything from the scratch, you already have many styled elements.

There are many frameworks out there if you learn from different developers on YouTube & Udemy etc. You might have seen that they might not use the same framework, and you might get confused about whether to learn all of them or which one to learn. Many people end up learning more than 2-3 framework's which is good is you just wanna gain knowledge, but according to the developer's point of view, it is bad because it slows the speed of your development as you are focusing on a thing rather than moving forward with cutting edge technology.

To use these Framework's you need to know both HTML & CSS.

So in this blog, I have prepared a list of a few top CSS Frameworks in 2021. I hope this will help you choose your framework.

So let's get going!

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is the most popular CSS Framework which includes HTML, CSS, SASS & also a little bit of JavaScript, until recently Bootstrap also had jQuery, but in the latest version jQuery was dropped. 

Bootstrap was originally called Twitter Blueprint and was developed at Twitter.

Bootstrap was made open-source in August 19,2011. The source code for Bootstrap is available on GitHub, where even you can contribute to the code.

Bootstrap is directed at responsive & mobile-first development.

The latest version that was released recently is Bootstrap 5.0.0-beta1.

The version that is mostly used is v4.5, Bootstrap is the most-starred front-end framework on GitHub with over 2000 contributors.

Related Info:

• Release Date: August 19, 2011
• GitHub Stars: 146k
• Documentation: Excellent
• Browser Support: Cross-browser support.
• Used by: Spotify, Twitter, Udemy.

Advantages of Bootstrap

• Responsive Grid (rows & columns, responsive behavior)
• Pre-made HTML Components (buttons, forms, )
• Cross-Browser Compatibility
• Easy to Use & Learn
• Active Development (new versions, and constant bug fixes)
• Flexible & Customizable 
• A vast Community Support.
• Can use JS, without writing a single line of JS.

Disadvantages of Bootstrap

• All Bootstrap sites look similar.
• Will have to remember all class names to add Bootstrap pre-made elements.
• Heavy to use, the size of the file becomes high.

Tailwindcss

Tailwindcss is a utility-first CSS framework. Unlike other frameworks that have pre-defined components that are already styled, tailwindcss does not have pre-defined elements. Tailwind just provides us with helper CSS classes by which we can design and customize element's the way we want.

Tailwind CSS lets you create your own unique design.

Related Info

• Release Date: November 2, 2017
• GitHub Stars: 34.1K
• Documentation: Good
• Browser Support: Only Modern Browsers.
• Used by:  BlaBlaCar, OnlineDoctor, hubblr, LiveStorm.

Advantages of Tailwind CSS

• No default theme/styling.
• You do not need to undo styling and apply your own style to the design.
• Pre-designed widgets to build our site.

Disadvantages of Tailwind CSS

• No pre-defined components.
• Need to give time to learn all CSS helper classes.

Bulma

Bulma is a modern responsive CSS Framework. Bulma is free to use & is open-source. Bulma is based on the CSS Flexbox concept. It has no JavaScript and is built using pure CSS. Due to this, it is easy to integrate it into any JavaScript Framework.

Bulma has many advanced features that make your site look amazing and has less code. It has many web components that we can choose from and design them according to what we want. Bulma also uses SASS, web-packs, variables which makes it a lot easier to use.

Related Info

• Release Date: January 24, 2016
• GitHub Stars: 42.3K
• Documentation: Good
• Browser Support: Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, Safari.
• Used by:  TipOff, Rubrik, Django, PlusDental.

Advantages of Bulma

• Light-weight, flex-box based framework.
• Modularity.
• Provides flexibility.
• Easy Setup
• Easy to learn.
• Built using pure CSS, so can combine with JS Frameworks.

Disadvantages of Bulma

• No JavaScript Elements.
• Limited support for accessibility
• New, so less community support.
• It is constantly in the development phase.
• Slow on web browsers.

Materialize

Materialize CSS is a responsive front-end framework based on material design.

Materialize CSS is a UI component library designed by Google. It is also known as Material Design. It is created using HTML, CSS, javascript. It is fully responsive on Mobile phones & tablets. It is very easy to learn and also have excellent documentation where you can learn from.

It is used to create attractive, functional & consistent web pages & web apps.

It has good community support. It is also free and open-source.

Related Info

• Release Date: September 2011.
• GitHub Stars: 38.3K
• Documentation: Excellent
• Browser Support: It doesn't support all browsers & also not the older versions.
• Used by:  type stack, sumato soft, faveable, necompare.

Advantages of Materialize CSS

• Great Documentation.
• Easy to use
• Component-based framework.

Disadvantages of Materialize CSS

• No support for old browser versions.
• Large/heavy
• All websites look similar
• No Flexbox used
• Not maintained anymore.
• Little control over components.

Foundation

Foundation is one of the most advanced front-end frameworks for designing a beautiful responsive website. It has been built with HTML, CSS, SASS, JavaScript.

It was built by ZURB in 2008. The latest version is Foundation 6 released in 2015.

It has a SASS compiler which makes compiling faster than normal compilers.

Foundation is used for large web-applications, to make a beautiful website with responsive behavior with an attractive user interface. It is semantic, readable, flexible & customizable. You can find documentation and videos to learn Foundation on ZURB's official site.

Related Info

• Release Date: September 2011.
• GitHub Stars: 28.9K
• Documentation: Good
• Browser Support: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and few other versions of some browsers.
• Used by:  Amazon, HP, Adobe, Disney.

Advantages of Foundation

• Mobile First, responsive web design framework.
• Provides support for application & emails.
• Easy to customize.
• Open Source & free to use.

Disadvantages of Foundation

• Large dependency size.
• Not that beginner-friendly.
• Takes time to understand.

Conclusion

This blog provides you with the top 5 frameworks in 2021. Each framework has its unique features & different components which are required for your web development.

You should keep a few things in mind while choosing a CSS Framework:

• Responsiveness
• Browser support.
• Learning curve.
• What CSS-Preprocess is used.
• UI Design

You are smart enough to know what you want, and which framework is the best for you. These are just a few frameworks out there in the market, but these 5 frameworks are widely used and they are widely rated on GitHub. This blog has been prepared by researching and also using a few of these frameworks.

Again at the start of this blog, I said you might not agree with this list & you might use other frameworks, and it's completely fine. You can comment below your favorite frameworks.

A few Frameworks that we would also like to mention:

1. Pure CSS.
2. Semantic UI.
3. UI Kit.
4. Skeleton.

The data I've mentioned above is from my own personal experience/research.

A few things might have changed, if they did and you find them out be sure to comment it so that I can update it here.

Thanks a lot for keeping calm and reading this.
You know what to do and how to proceed.
You can contact me in case of any doubt or if you need assistance.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section.