Bootstrap versus Material Design

Bootstrap and Material UI are some of the most used and reliable web frameworks used to develop Web UI. In this shot, we will see a detailed comparison between them.

First, let’s quickly explore these two frameworks.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is a free and open-source framework directed at responsive, mobile-first front-end web development. It is a powerful toolkit that comprises a collection of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript tools to create and build web pages and web applications. It is hosted on GitHub and was originally created on Twitter.

The primary focus of Bootstrap was to reduce the inconsistencies in web application development. It has one of the best documentations and an engaging community to provide support.

There are no specific design rules in Bootstrap. The user has full freedom to customize the UI as per their needs. It is a great option to build fast and responsive websites. Some of the companies that use Bootstrap are:

• Apple Music
• Spotify
• Twitter

Material Design

Material Design is a set of principles developed by Google that specifies a set of rules to develop a better and more attractive UI. It helps you explore every element of website design and guides you to design your website as best as you can. Some such examples would be the use of buttons, the various placement angles, and so on.

Material Design offers a more simplistic and better UI with little to no dependency on JavaScript frameworks. It consists of its own material design framework that offers more flexibility and customizability. It is a great option to build creative websites. Some of the companies that use Material Design are:

• Google
• Coya Stack

Differences between Bootstrap and Material Design

1. Performance

Bootstrap contains a lot of jQuery plugins and CSS classes, which makes it heavy and expands its size. This may result in pages loading slowly, compromise with performance, etc.

On the other hand, Material Design contains negligible JavaScript frameworks, which makes it a lightweight framework compared to Bootstrap, which avoids these problems.

2. Browser compatibility

Both Material and Bootstrap have seamless browser compatibility. They support Chrome, IE 10+, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Additionally, Bootstrap is also compatible with IE 8.

3. Documentation and community support

Bootstrap is open-source. Thus, its community support and documentation are extremely remarkable.

Material Design components are quite simple and straightforward, but the support is a bit on the lesser side compared to Bootstrap.

4. Third-party compatibility

Bootstrap is compatible with many third-party components, whereas Material Design is not compatible with any third-party component.

5. Appearance

Material Design uses eye-catching animation, sliders, and pop-ups, whereas Bootstrap believes in minimalism. Thus, Material Design looks more attractive compared to Bootstrap.

6. Font

The base font of Bootstrap is Helvetica Neue, while in Material Design, the base font is Roboto.

Which development framework is the best?

It’s hard to judge the best among them. Both have their own pros and cons. So, instead of choosing the best, let’s choose the right framework.

If you are looking for some cool animations and want to follow particular design styles, then definitely go with Material Design. If you want to stick with minimalism and build websites quickly, then you can go with Bootstrap.

This is simply a basic comparison between the two of them. In the end, it depends on the requirements and your preference.

If you are one of those people who wants to use both of them, you can check out mdbootstrap.