Mastering Frontend Development: A Deep Dive into Bootstrap, Material UI, and Tailwind CSS
When building a frontend application, relying on existing libraries can save time and effort. But did you know that learning how to implement these libraries can also help you create clean and symmetrical layouts without extra effort? All popular UI libraries are built with cross-browser functionality in mind, making them a great choice for any project.
The Top Three UI Libraries: Bootstrap, Material UI, and Tailwind CSS
With numerous UI libraries available, each has its strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we’ll explore the key differences between Bootstrap, Material UI (MUI), and Tailwind CSS, helping you choose the right tool for your next frontend project.
Bootstrap: A Popular Choice for Frontend Development
Initially developed by Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton at Twitter, Bootstrap has gained immense popularity in the developer community, with over 160k stars on Github and 1000+ active contributors. The latest version, Bootstrap 5, has abandoned support for jQuery in favor of vanilla JavaScript.
Using Bootstrap
Integrating Bootstrap into a new or existing project is easy. You can include its CDN or download its source files and link them in your markup page. The developer community has also created libraries like BootstrapVue, Reactstrap, and Sveltestrap to help bring Bootstrap to various frontend frameworks.
Accessibility in Bootstrap
Bootstrap was built to conform to the standard Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0). The library provides utility classes to hide contents visually while making them accessible to assistive technologies like screen readers.
Extending Bootstrap
If you need to change existing Bootstrap styles, you can use custom CSS or SASS. Overriding Bootstrap styles with a custom CSS file is easy, while using SASS requires more expertise.
Material UI (MUI) for React: A Material Design System
MUI is a Material Design system for implementing React-based applications, offering a large number of prebuilt components. The Material Design system was created by Google to help developers build high-quality digital experiences.
Using Material Design
The official developers of Material Design provide a suite of frameworks and packages for both mobile and web applications. MUI was designed to be appealing, with customization options that allow you to easily build your own custom design system on top of its components.
Accessibility in Material Design and libraries like MUI
The Google Material Design system includes accessibility guidelines and best practices, and libraries like MUI follow them by default. These libraries also have additional features to create rich and accessible applications.
Extending Material Design with MUI
MUI has several methods for customizing and extending its components. You can use the library’s sx prop, GlobalStyles, and ThemeProvider components to change the styling and define a separate theme for every desired component.
Tailwind CSS: A Utility-First Framework
Tailwind CSS is a relatively new frontend framework that provides low-level utility classes to create fully unique designs. This library works by scanning for class names in all HTML files, JavaScript components, and other templates, then generating the relevant styles and writing them to a static CSS file.
Using Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is available as a node package that can be extended as a PostCSS plugin. It’s also served via CDN, although the CDN is intended for development purposes only.
Accessibility in Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is built to be performant and accessible by default. The library includes additional utility classes to improve accessibility, such as the screen reader (sr-only and not-sr-only) class.
Using Bootstrap with Tailwind or MUI
While it’s possible to use one library alongside another, be mindful of conflicting class names and design orders. You can use utility classes that exist in both libraries, but prioritize the styling of the library imported last.
Choose the Right Tool for Your Frontend Project
With this in-depth guide to popular CSS libraries and frameworks, you’re now equipped to choose the right tool for your next frontend project. Remember to consider factors like accessibility, extensibility, and customization options when making your decision.