Cons and Pros of using Bootstrap, BASSCSS and Materialize css libraries

Hello Dear Friends,

We haven’t talked in awhile, my bad, I was so busy working on awesome projects and learning new skills.

Today I want to talk about my favorite CSS libraries:

• Bootstrap.
• BassCSS.
• Materialize css.

 

Bootstrap

I absolutely love Bootstrap css library, most of my websites are made with it, including my portfolio website http://lepistina.com/ .

Bootstrap is a perfect css library for a newbie, as it’s very simple to use and they have very detailed documentation about how to use it.

Recently Bootstrap Alpha 6 has landed, and it has everything you need to build a perfect website. The biggest change that now Bootstrap Alpha 6  is flexbox by default, but  It comes at the cost of dropping IE9 support.

Flexbox is powerful layout tool, providing unparalleled flexibility and control to grid system and core components. What that means, that everything gets completely responsive, how cool is that! Also Bootstrap is pretty lightweight when you use SASS or LESS.

 

Pros of using Bootstrap:

• It is responsive;
• It is easy to use;
• Bootstrap team is always working on implementation new technologies in their framework, so you work is just to take it.
• Consistent UI that looks good out of the box.
• Several javascript plugins included using jQuery.
• Icons included.
• Mobile-first oriented

 

Cons of using Bootstrap:

• Styles are verbose which can lead to not perfectly semantic code.
• Can require lots of overriding styles.
• Your websites can start to look pretty much the same, so you need to customize them a lot.

 

But overall Bootstrap is a great css library, I would highly recommend it.

 

Basscss

I encountered Basscss recently, as I was searching for lightweight and simple css library, and I was totally impressed with Basscss. The beauty of this library that you use just one css style assigned to one class, which will lead to minimum overriding styles. It is simple, easy yet genius css library.

 

Pros of using Basscss:

• Really small library 2.21kb.
• Minimum overriding styles.
• You can use it as a base of your own css library.
• Easy to use.

 

Cons of using Basscss:

• It is really basic, you have to build your own components which may take more time compare to using big css libraries like Bootstrap.

 

I recommend Basscss, especially to write your own css library it will come very handy and it will add more value in eyes of your employer.

 

Materialize css

When I first saw Materialize css, I was mesmerized by its design. Materialize is a modern responsive front-end framework based on Material Design.

I have built http://rationalgifts.com/ based on this css library, and design is sleek, modern and bold.

 

Pros of using Materialize:

• Materialize is very opinionated about how UX elements behave and interact visually.
• Materialize is great in its slick material design that it offers out-of-the-box.
• Responsive
• Easy to use.
• Great documentation.

 

Cons of using Materialize:

• Sometimes Materialize does not handle certain nestings of elements properly, resulting in a weird look.
• Doesn’t support some old browsers.
• Large/heavy.

 

Overall Materialize is well designed css library, I highly recommend to give it a try and see if it sticks with you.

 

Here were my three reviews on my favorite css libraries, I hope it was helpful! If you have any questions, suggestions or ideas about what you want me to talk in my future blog post, please don’t hesitate to email me on iuliia@lepistina.com or simply post a comment in a comment box down below.
Cheers!