The Web is constantly evolving, as is the CSS framework that makes front-end development more productive and enjoyable.
Whether you like it or hate it, the CSS framework is here. Developers with no front-end experience can easily implement a user-friendly UI using some of these frameworks. Other frameworks are more complex and aimed at power users.
Regardless of skill level, these frameworks help you create beautiful layouts faster. This collection introduces you to the best CSS frameworks on the market so you can choose the one that suits your needs.
Why use a CSS framework?
Before getting started, it’s important to understand why CSS frameworks are an integral part of web development. The following are the main benefits of using the CSS framework.
- The CSS framework allows you to improve your development process with predefined classes and IDs such as forms, breadcrumbs, navigation bars, and buttons.
- You can increase productivity and streamline your development workflow by incorporating a good CSS framework.
- You can also create a neat and symmetrical layout.
1. Bootstrap
Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive mobile-first projects on the web. It makes front-end web development faster and easier. Extensive documentation, samples, and demos to get you started quickly with responsive web development.
You’ll notice that Bootstrap has made some important changes in Bootstrap 5. B. Add RTL support without using jQuery (see Full Bootstrap 5 Changes). This, along with pre-built components and helper classes, makes Bootstrap one of the best frameworks for web developers.
2. Bulma
Bulma is a free open source CSS framework based on Flexbox. It’s manageable to get and apply. This pack comes with a wealth of UI components with a sufficient number of bars, tabs, panels, boxes, media objects and more. This frameworks is very modular and it has brilliant class names. The modifiers are convenient too.
3. Tailwind CSS
Tailwind provides a modern utility-based approach to building responsive websites. There are various helper classes that you can use to build a modern website without writing CSS.
Note that using Tailwind CSS requires a development setup to reduce the final CSS size. Otherwise, using the default will make the CSS file larger. Still, developers like Tailwind’s ability to quickly add styles to HTML elements and out-of-the-box theme styles. There are many tailwind UI kits here.
4. Foundation
Foundation is the perfect choice for experienced developers who enjoy the freedom but need the power of a full-featured framework.
In reality, Foundation is more than just a simple CSS framework. It’s a family of front-end development tools. These tools can be used together or completely independently.
Foundation for Sites is the core framework for building web pages, while you have Foundation for Emails that allows you to create compelling emails that can be read on any device. Then, motion UI is the final piece of the puzzle where you can create advanced CSS animations.
5. Pure CSS
Pure.css is a set of small responsive CSS modules that you can use in any web project. This framework is ridiculously small. As the entire set of modules is 4.0KB, shrunk and gzipped.
The framework been built on Normalize.css and provides the layout and style of native HTML elements and the most common UI components. Pure is out of the box and ready to use, so your elements will look great on all screen sizes.
6. UIkit
UIkit is a lightweight, modular front-end framework for extending fast and beautiful web interfaces. The zip file contains the compiled CSS and JavaScript files. Which is everything to get you started.
Using UIkit. I recommend that you install one of your favourite IDEs or autocomplete plugins for your code editor. As this saves you time by not having to search for and enter all UIkit classes and markup.
7. Basscss
Basscss is a low level CSS toolkit. That has a clear and refined naming code, It’s easy to internalise.
Its saves development time with more scalable and easier-to-read code. Re-usable and interoperable styles act like building blocks, forming the basis for any style-sheet. With this framework you can combined any number of combinations. This framework strikes a balance between clarity and sophistication of naming code consistency and flexibility.
8. Milligram
Milligram is a minimalist CSS framework that comes with no dependency on JavaScript. It provides a minimal setup of styles. For a fast and clean starting point building a responsive website. Milligram offers a flexbox based grid system.
9. Cirrus
A component-and-utility-centric SCSS framework designed for rapid prototyping. Use beautiful pre-built components to bootstrap your next project and utility classes to polish your final design.
10. Skeleton
Skeleton is an ultra-lightweight or boilerplate CSS framework. That is designed to help develop responsive websites. Despite its small size, Skeleton includes all the standard responsive web design components such as Grid. The framework split the entire web page into multiple 12-column grids. This framework is a great CSS framework for small websites and one-page web apps.
11. Base
Base is a lightweight and minimal responsive CSS framework. Which can be used to build responsive websites. Including in this framework is a free base starter along with many paid ready made templates for web design projects.
12. Tachyons
Tachyons is another utility-based CSS library that offers many out-of-the-box styles, so you don’t have to write a lot of CSS yourself.
Out-of-the-box style tachyons are lightweight and do not require additional setup. You can also reduce the size if you want to use the guidelines provided. If you are looking for an easy-to-use utility library, this may be a good choice.
Last words.
Comparing the popularity of these frameworks, we can see that Bootstrap, Tailwind and Foundation are far more advanced than other frameworks. The community surrounding the Responsive Design Framework is also important when answering questions on Stack Overflow and other forums.
Lots of agencies that build websites usually choose Bootstrap. Which provides out-of-the-box components and is easy to customise. As result, you will find many Bootstrap themes and libraries such as Bootstrap management templates, Bootstrap UI kits and more out every where on the internet and on this site.