Writing Vanilla CSS is cool and fun. However, it can quickly become unwieldy and challenging, especially when dealing with large projects. CSS frameworks help with this. A CSS framework comprises various libraries and stylesheets that allow developers to style their websites without explicitly writing CSS from scratch.

These frameworks provide an easier way to style UI elements such as font, color, margin, padding, positioning, and the navbar. Given the number of top CSS frameworks, developers must identify the best CSS framework for responsive web design.

In this blog post, we will look at the top 5 CSS frameworks and their features, ultimately helping you choose the best modern CSS framework for your project.

1. Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework that allows users to create user interfaces by combining predefined classes through inline styling. Tailwind CSS has become increasingly popular in recent years due to its efficiency and ease in creating beautiful user interfaces.

Developers find Tailwind CSS relatively easy to use because it entails writing CSS styling in your HTML tags, which is why it is thought to be the best CSS framework for React. Although using Tailwind CSS can be challenging on your first try, considering you have to learn the abbreviations of Tailwind CSS classes, it becomes seamless as you build more projects with it.

Features of Tailwind CSS

• Utility-First Approach: Tailwind CSS adopts a utility-first approach that allows you to combine utility classes in styling interfaces right from your HTML tag, rather than creating or writing custom CSS for each element. This approach helps to style interfaces faster.
• Customizable: You can extend Tailwind’s styling functionalities to your custom design system. The default configuration can be overwritten from the tailwind.config.js file.
• Responsive Design: Tailwind CSS has breakpoints that can be used with utility classes to implement a responsive design interface. These breakpoints include sm, md, lg, xl, 2xl, etc. You can also set custom breakpoints at different screen sizes.
• Support for Dark Theme: Tailwind CSS comes with support for a dark theme. Theming in Tailwind CSS is implemented by using the dark variant. You can also create custom themes from the tailwind.config.js file.
• Reusable Components: With the @apply directive, you can group several utility classes into a single component that can be used across different elements.

Installation

To install Tailwind CSS in your project, run the command below:

npm install -D tailwindcss
npx tailwindcss init

Then configure your template paths in the tailwind.config.js file:

module.exports = {
  content: ["./src/**/*.{html,js}"],
  theme: {
    extend: {},
  },
  plugins: [],
}

2. Bootstrap

Bootstrap is an open-source framework that provides interface components to developers using CSS and JavaScript-based templates. It also adopts the mobile-first design approach which makes developing responsive interfaces seamless. Websites built with Bootstrap display consistently across modern browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. This saves developers from inconsistencies in design rendering and having to add extra rules to cater to different browsers. Learn how to build a portfolio using Bootstrap.

Features of Bootstrap

• Mobile-First Approach: The mobile-first approach helps to develop responsive interfaces easily and offers optimized designs for devices of all screen sizes.
• Vast Ecosystem: Bootstrap has been around for a long time and has the largest ecosystem out of all the CSS frameworks. It provides a variety of design templates, good documentation, and demos to assist developers in the learning process.
• Pre-built Components: Bootstrap comes with pre-built components such as navbars, forms, badges, carousels, modals, and more.
• Support for SASS: Bootstrap supports SASS, which most CSS frameworks do not support.
• JavaScript plugins: Bootstrap comes with JavaScript plugins that provide ready-to-use functionalities like modals, carousels, tooltips, etc.

Installation

You can use Bootstrap in your project by including the CDN links in your head and body tags:

<head>
<link href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.3/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" integrity="sha384-QWTKZyjpPEjISv5WaRU9OFeRpok6YctnYmDr5pNlyT2bRjXh0JMhjY6hW+ALEwIH" crossorigin="anonymous">
</head>

<body>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@5.3.3/dist/js/bootstrap.bundle.min.js" integrity="sha384-YvpcrYf0tY3lHB60NNkmXc5s9fDVZLESaAA55NDzOxhy9GkcIdslK1eN7N6jIeHz" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
</body>

You can also install Bootstrap using Node Package Manager (NPM). Run the command below:

npm install bootstrap@5.3.3

3. Foundation

Foundation is an open-source, responsive front-end framework used to create visually appealing interfaces on the web. It comes with toolkits, a responsive grid system, design templates, HTML, CSS, SASS, and code that provides design functionalities such as buttons, navigation, forms, typography, etc. You can also extend the functionalities through JavaScript extensions.

Features of Foundation

• Mobile-First Approach: Foundation uses the mobile-first approach, making it easy to design for small screen sizes and scale to large screen sizes.
• Responsive Grid System: Foundation uses a 12-column flexbox-based grid system, which helps to create layouts and also contributes to seamlessly displaying content across all screen sizes.
• Toolkits: Foundation comes with ready-to-use toolkits to help developers skip through the process of creating interfaces from scratch. It provides framework components for emails and web pages.
• Flexibility: Foundation does not constrain developers to a particular language or style. Developers have full control of styling their interfaces.
• Pre-built Components: Foundation comes with pre-built components such as dropdowns, modals, accordions, buttons, forms, and more.

Installation

You can install Foundation through NPM. Run the command below:

npm install foundation-sites

4. Bulma

Bulma is an open source, Flexbox-based framework that provides functionalities to create beautiful web interfaces. It is particularly appealing to developers because of its ease of use, requiring very minimal CSS knowledge to get started, which makes it the best CSS framework for beginners. It uses tiles to implement Metro-style grids which are used to create layouts. It adopts a modular design approach and offers developers the flexibility to customize their styles however they want. See how Bulma compares to Bootstrap.

Features of Bulma

• Flexbox Layout: Unlike other CSS frameworks, Bulma is built on Flexbox, a one-dimensional layout for arranging content in rows and columns.
• Easy to learn: Compared to other CSS frameworks, Bulma is easy to learn, especially considering the fact that no prior knowledge of CSS is required.
• Cross-browser compatibility: Bulma works and renders design consistently across major browsers, making it easier to create cross-browser interfaces.
• No JavaScript dependency: Bulma does not require any JavaScript dependencies as it fully focuses on CSS.
• Extensible with SASS: Bulma can be extended with SASS variables to customize properties such as colors, padding, margin, etc.

Installation

You can use Bulma in your project by using a CDN:

<link
  rel="stylesheet"
  href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bulma@1.0.2/css/bulma.min.css"
>

You can also install the Bulma Sass library through NPM:

npm install bulma

5. Materialize

Materialize is a modern CSS framework based on Google’s Material Design. It was created and designed by Google to provide a unified and consistent user interface across all its products. Materialize is focused on user experience as it integrates animations and components to provide feedback to users.

Features of Materialize

• Consistent Design Components: Materialize provides user interface components that are based on Google’s Material Design, offering consistency in design across various applications.
• Prebuilt Animation and Transition: Materialize offers prebuilt animation and transition, enabling developers to implement visually appealing interfaces that improve user experience.
• Support for SASS: Materialize comes with support for SASS, which provides flexibility in customizing default styles to fit your project’s needs.
• Icon Library: Materialize comes with Material Design Icons, a library of icons to improve and add aesthetics to the interfaces in your design.
• Prebuilt Component: Materialize includes pre-built components like modals, tabs, tooltips, carousels, etc. These pre-built components, which are built with JavaScript, help to improve the interactivity of your website.

Installation

You can install Materialize through NPM using this command:

npm install materialize-css@next

You can also use a CDN:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/materialize/1.0.0/css/materialize.min.css">
 <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/materialize/1.0.0/js/materialize.min.js">
</script>

Learning the Best CSS Frameworks: Navigate Your Journey with Pieces

Choosing the best framework for CSS ultimately depends on your project’s requirements. We can agree that using a CSS framework significantly saves development time and helps developers build more user interfaces while writing fewer styles. Learning a top CSS framework, especially with insufficient knowledge of CSS, can be challenging.

This is why it is highly beneficial to navigate your learning with Pieces. Pieces is an on-device AI coding assistant that boosts developers’ productivity by offering a contextual understanding of their codebase. Let’s see a practical example of how we can use Pieces to learn Tailwind CSS:

In the demo above, I have a project which I started styling with Tailwind CSS. I need to add a box-shadow property to an element. Now, in Vanilla CSS, this can be as straightforward as using the box-shadow property and setting the values. However, for Tailwind CSS, I cannot tell the exact abbreviation that represents box-shadow until I head over to the docs site and start scanning through.

Rather than waste any more time, I simply ask Pieces Copilot how I can add a box-shadow element to the highlighted element. Not only does the copilot give a breakdown of all the box-shadow values and ranges (as it is in the docs), it also provides a contextual answer. It tells me exactly how to implement the box-shadow in my codebase, which just saves a ton of time. Note that I have the Pieces for VS Code extension installed in this demo; it’s also available for your favorite IDEs.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we have explored the best CSS frameworks in 2024, their features, and how to install them in your project. We also explored how to learn a new CSS framework faster with Pieces. You can now choose the best CSS framework for responsive design that fits your project. Happy styling!