25+ Responsive CSS Frameworks, Purpose, Uses, Benefits and More!
Before the introduction of CSS frameworks creating websites and styling them was a complex task. Developers were making each element from scratch and coding the whole website – meanwhile, a challenging and time-consuming task.
But CSS frameworks have performed great over the years. With their adoption, it has become quiet easier to style & design a website within a short period. One of the earlier CSS frameworks was launched back in 2007 named “Blueprint” by Olav Bjorkoy. And nowadays, you can find hundreds of frameworks as per your needs.
And yes, this article is also going to share 23+ responsive CSS frameworks with you along with their uses, benefits, tutorials, complete purposes, and more. Meanwhile, you can find everything about CSS frameworks here that you need to know.
Ready to explore the article?
Let’s dive right into this.
What is the CSS Framework?
In simple, a css framework is a pre-designed toolbox for creating websites. It provides you with ready to go codes for various elements such as buttons, forms as well as layouts. Meanwhile, you don’t need to code anything from scratch – just pick up the relevant CSS framework, implement and edit accordingly. That’s how simple it is.
According to the w3techs research, it has been found that more than 23.8% of websites on the internet use CSS frameworks. In which, bootstrap is on top of these statistics:
- Bootstrap CSS framework has a market share of 78.5%
- From a total of 23.8% of websites, it is used by 18.6% on average
The remaining market share is divided into the rest of the CSS frameworks. Let’s discuss CSS framework types.
Types of CSS Frameworks
Keeping in view the functionality and features, CSS frameworks are divided into two types:
- Responsive CSS frameworks
- Non-responsive css frameworks
Here’s the more detail.
Responsive CSS Framework
A responsive CSS framework prioritizes perfect UI/UX. By using it, you can create a website that automatically adjusts pixels on various screen sizes. Your website will look perfect on laptops, as well as on mobile phones at the same time if you use responsive CSS frameworks.
But these types of frameworks are only used by the people who have responsiveness on priority. Otherwise, people skip them because they are heavy. After all, they promote various styling and coding as well for great responsiveness.
Non-Responsive CSS Framework
Non-responsive CSS frameworks are completely inverse to responsive frameworks. Meanwhile, your website might not adjust pixels when shifting on different screens. It will disturb elements like forms, buttons, and the overall layout.
These frameworks are mostly used by people who don’t have responsiveness on priority. Web developers who only need efficient website speed regardless of anything else.
See the purpose of CSS frameworks in web development.
Why We Use CSS Frameworks?
CSS frameworks are widely used because of several reasons. They are quiet beneficial and come up with dozens of benefits which include providing cross-browser compatibility, and responsiveness, promoting consistency and efficiency, and reducing overall development time.
If you are an expert developer and understand the use of CSS frameworks, you can create a website from scratch within a short period. In fact, you can achieve great UI/UX and reach customizations exactly per your needs.
You can get an idea of the popularity of CSS frameworks by the statement below:
According to a survey by Statistics, it has been observed most web developers use frameworks because they automate overall web development procedures. In 2023, 42.7% of developers reported that they were using Node.js frameworks, while 40.6% voted for React.js.
Also read: CSS Frameworks vs. Custom CSS: What’s The Right Choice?
Most Popular CSS Frameworks 2024
There are a lot of CSS frameworks present nowadays but not all of them are advanced and useful. Some CSS frameworks are ordinary, while some do not show compatibility with the latest technologies such as third-party APIs and more. Considering these issues, we have refined a massive list of CSS frameworks and described the most popular responsive CSS frameworks of 2024 below.
Check them out.
Bootstrap
Meet one of the top-rated CSS frameworks allowing you to create user-friendly and attractive interfaces. It provides you with pre-designed components and utilities that are automatically adjusted on different screen sizes. Historically, this framework was launched back in 2011 by Twitter engineers Jacob Thornton and Mark Otto.
The best thing about this CSS framework is that you can easily customize it. Plus, you can also accelerate the web development procedure with its pre-designed components such as navigation bars, forms, and models. Meanwhile, you can even complete your project if you are not so familiar with coding.
While this particular framework has so many advantages, it also has some disadvantages like using Bootstrap components can result in larger file sizes which affect the load time or page speed negatively. Among developers worldwide, websites made using this framework have a generic look if they are not customized well.
Bulma
Bulma is another popular CSS framework based on Flexbox layout and is famous for its clean and modular system. It provides you with a utility-first approach, so you can accelerate your web development process. Bulma framework was developed by Jeremy Thomas who was famous for his frontend development skills.
The framework has no dependencies on JavaScript due to which it is lightweight and promotes modern designing. Interestingly, it’s a beginner-friendly and easy-to-understand framework with no complexities. In fact, developers say that you should start learning with this framework if you want to practice different frameworks.
Talking about some of its limitations like other frameworks, it lacks an extensive set of components. It also has less strong community and documentation compared to Bootstrap. Plus, a lack of JavaScript may cause the issue of your project is massive or your developers team is not compatible with CSS-only frameworks.
Foundation
Here’s another most popular css framework developed by ZURB Foundation back in 2011.
Foundation, a CSS framework helps you create dynamic and responsive websites and also provides a complete set of tools and components to streamline the whole procedure. It wouldn’t be wrong to say the framework is widely known only for its responsiveness. The designs you make using this framework are adjustable on all screen sizes. Also, you can enjoy modular architecture and a powerful grid system.
The framework is lightweight, flexible, and easy to customize with no complexities. It also has an extensive community, comprehensive documentation, and support for users among developers. If you are a newbie or don’t have enough coding experience, learning and implementing this CSS framework is perfect for you.
Some of its limitations include larger file sizes and an irregular update system making it less efficient and a competitive choice for those who are looking for a versatile choice.
Halfmoon
Halfmoon was released back in 2019 and is famous for its modern, responsive, and built-in responsiveness. It offers various pre-designed components and styles to help you streamline development procedures. It’s a beginner-friendly css framework, easy to use, lightweight, and offers an interactive interface.
Pay attention – this framework also supports compact file size due to which you enjoy faster loading speed in your project. Good for SEO and other optimization factors.
As the framework promotes responsiveness, the components including grids, forms, buttons, layouts, and everything else automatically adjust on various screen sizes. If simplicity is your priority, this CSS framework might be perfect for you.
Lastly, the websites made with this framework have a generic look because it only provides you with fewer pre-built components compared to the other front-end CSS frameworks.
Tailwind
Meet this highly remarkable CSS frameworks allows you to develop user-friendly interfaces and avoid the need for extensive custom stylesheets. Interestingly, using this particular css framework you can directly construct designs in the HTML markup.
Isn’t it impressive?
Also, it is easy to maintain and a perfect choice for small and large projects because of its scalability options. In fact, if you have complex applications to apply this particular framework, it would also be a great decision. The framework also provides you with extensive documentation, and its active community contributes to the popularity.
Where this framework provides you with several benefits, it also has some limitations. Like this framework can result in larger file size, optimization issues, and complexities during customization.
Fomantic UI
Fomantic UI is a popular open-source front-end framework which contains optimized pre-designed components to create visually appealing user interfaces. By using this framework, you can ensure the better compatibility of your website during updates and changes. If we talk about the core feature making it a best responsive css framework, it’s the simple theming system. With this, you can ensure the simple appearance of your applications.
It is also used to extend and preserve the features of Semantic UI. Interestingly, it has a larger community to contribute to its growth and the reason behind its popularity and higher resources. If we talk about some of the limitations of this framework, it strongly depends on jQuery for various functionalities. Apart from this, the framework offers simple theming system but applying and using components might be tough at the same moment.
You should have deeper knowledge of applying theme components, organizing styles and more. According to the experts, the framework continuously introduces frequent changes and updates which is not good because developers need to stay informed about changes.
Materialize
Here’s another front-end responsive css framework that can help you create visually appealing interfaces and use pre-build components such as cards, navigation bars and much more. The best thing about using this particular framework is that you are allowed to use animations and transitions and ensure the great user experience on your website.
Another important feature making this css framework a best choice is its active development community. You can have regular updates, ongoing support and higher resources because of this. Isn’t it making Materialize a best choice?
Have a look at some of its limitations.
Materialize is one of the best css frameworks no doubt, but it always comes up with limited customization options compared to the other frameworks in the list. Apart from this, using the components of this framework may result in a larger file size. It may affect your page load time negatively.
Chota CSS
Meet another responsive css framework famous for its simplicity and efficiency. By using this front-end framework, its quiet easy to build clean user interfaces and designs. There are a lot of components this framework offers you to tackle with styles. Talking about the most appreciating feature of Chota CSS, its lightweight and fast, promotes flexibility, responsiveness, minimalism and much more.
Pay attention – Chota CSS is found to be an easily integrated framework. Developers can easily integrate this framework into their existing projects and codebases without any hassle. That’s because developers always like to use this particular framework.
Chota CSS is always good for small and medium size projects where your first priority is simplicity and fast loading speed. But in terms of large sized projects where you need to tackle intricate styles and components, it might not be a good option. This is because the framework come up with less theming and customization options, limited components for styling and smaller community size.
Blaze UI
Here’s another responsive css framework which is famous for its vast collection of ready made components, lightweight nature and mobile first approach. The best thing about this framework is that it doesn’t rely on any specific JavaScript framework like Vue.js or React. If we talk about some great advantages of this framework, its quiet suitable for large scale projects.
It has well organized structure and clean code system making it easier for developers to use and implement this responsive css framework. Meanwhile, the interface is clean and easy to understand. The developers who are looking for highly customizable, lightweight and mobile friendly css frameworks, Blaze UI is undoubtedly the best choice.
But there are a few cases where Blaze UI is limited. According to the expert developers, this framework is less flexible and needs more custom coding compared to the other css frameworks. Apart from this, there is a limited animation capability as the framework don’t support built-in animation libraries.
Skeleton
Skeleton is the popular css framework which comes up with great features such as only 400 lines of code and that’s all. Apart from this, there’s zero compiling and installation. You don’t need to get into any difficulty while utilizing this framework for designing purpose.
It is famous for the management features of grids, typography, media queries, forms and many more. As it is a responsive framework, so every design components adjusts automatically to window size with it. Moreover, the framework is easy to customize, easy to learn and shows the great browser compatibility.
If we talk about the limitations of this framework, incompatibility with large sized projects would come first. Skeleton does not offer you the comprehensive set of components and you might need to collaborate with third party tools for advanced designing. We also found that this framework has less documentation and community support. You might need to rely on self-learning and experimentation to become an expert using this framework.
Fictoan
Fictoan is an open source, interactive and lightweight CSS framework which is famous for its developer friendly features. It allows you to promote extensive customization considering your project requirements and introduce visually appealing interfaces. The best thing about this framework is that it follows a modular architecture.
Meanwhile, you can create custom solutions without following complex steps. And you know what’s the popular feature making it a considerable choice among designers, it’s the ease of modifying colors, maintaining spaces, typography and many more. It wouldn’t be wrong to say using this framework you can achieve the trending designs.
We support this responsive css framework and appreciate its customization features but its true that it comes up with complex options. You need to get into the complexity for extensive customization and to achieve your desired project requirements. Plus, the community is also not active, so you would have to promote self-learning to become an expert using this framework.
Mini.css
If simplicity, high speed and attractive user interface is your priority, then mini.css framework is the ideal for you. Yes, this framework allows you to ensure glamorous styling while maintaining small footprints. Because of the feature, this framework is considered the ideal for web applications.
The framework also has intuitive structure and straightforward syntax. You don’t need vast coding experience or expertise in technical programming to use this framework. Only you need is a creative mind, project goals and requirements. Rest of the things like components to be used, buttons, forms, and media queries are provided to you by the framework.
According to the developers worldwide using Mini.css, it offers limited styling components and comes up with the complex options. Only basic theming options are available to you. If your project size is large and you need next level designing, you have to collaborate with third party tools because the community is also not so vast.
How to Choose the right Framework for your project?
Choosing the right framework for your project is a tough task because you need to consider a lot of things to ensure your decision is right. But don’t worry, we’ll surely help you here. See the list of factors we have described that you need to consider when comparing different CSS frameworks for your project.
Project Requirements
The first thing you need to consider when choosing the right framework is your project requirements. Obviously, everything depends upon it. For example, if your project is related to complex web applications, choose a CSS framework that shows compatibility with web applications. In contrast, if you want to promote simplicity in your web designs, choose a framework that provides you with a highly optimized and simple layout.
You can also consider your other project requirements as well and choose a framework accordingly. To know the benefits & limitations of popular CSS frameworks, explore the above section.
Your Developers Team Expertise
The second most important thing is to consider the expertise of your developers team. Don’t choose such a framework your team is not compatible with. Another opinion would be, to hire CSS developers who are compatible with the frameworks you want to work on. RemotePlatz can help you with that.
Resources By Frameworks
Analyze complete features of CSS frameworks you think are compatible with your project. After that, compare which framework is providing you with more features to adopt. You can compare frameworks from various aspects such as several components, grids & layout options, and more.
Long Term Maintenance Compatibility
If you’re planning a long-term project, ensure you’re choosing a framework that is good for the long term. Some frameworks might not updated regularly and harm your project when they are outdated. So, choose such frameworks that are updated regularly and come up with less maintenance.
Scalability Options
Regularly updated frameworks provide you with higher scalability options. We highly recommend you choose such frameworks that provide you with several options to scale your project. In this way, you can update your project on a routine basis and add more features.
Licensing Costs
It's another important factor you need to consider when choosing the right framework. Evaluate if the CSS framework you’re finalizing charges any additional costs for advanced features or licensing, or not.
If so, make sure the costs align with your budget. Otherwise, enhance your budget or look for the best alternatives.
Security Layers
Security is a critical aspect of any website or application. Don’t compromise on it and always choose a framework that offers great security features. For example, encryption, authentication, and administrative authorization.
Vendor Lock-In
Some frameworks don’t promote transparency and you are not allowed to easily migrate to other CSS frameworks in the future, or may be charged some costs. This condition is called vendor lock-in. So, be cautious of such frameworks and choose one which does not lead to this situation later.
Prototyping
Prototyping refers to the creation of a small portion or simplified version of your project to test whether the features of your chosen framework working well. So, you’re also recommended to test the framework you are going to finalize with prototyping.
Well, these were the factors to consider when choosing the right CSS framework for your project. Now, if you are looking for an expert CSS developer to help you with your projects related to the CSS and CSS frameworks, here’s your destination below.
RemotePlatz – Hire the Top 2% CSS Web Developers Talent Today
CSS frameworks allow you to enjoy various features and advantages during your web development projects. Especially, when you don’t have enough knowledge about technicalities regarding building components and layouts from scratch. Using such frameworks, you can get access to pre-defined libraries and promote your work.
You have to face the truth: CSS frameworks will only help if you properly understand how to use them perfectly. But don’t worry if you are not because we are here to help you. RemotePlatz is one of the best online resources connecting you to the top 2% of CSS developers, experts in using and implementing all types of CSS frameworks.
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Wrapping Up!
In the above article, we have completely shared everything about popular CSS frameworks including Bootstrap, Tailwind, Bulma, Foundation, Halfmoon, and more. We described how each CSS framework provides you with great benefits, and you can get the maximum advantage.
The disadvantages or limitations of each CSS framework are also mentioned. This is to better navigate you. For more information and to hire an expert CSS developer with strong knowledge of all these frameworks, contact us today. We’ll surely connect you with a great css developer.
Now, leave your kind opinions and share your experiences with this topic quickly in the comment box below.
FAQs
What is a responsive CSS framework?
A responsive CSS framework is the type of framework in which web design components such as grids, layouts, classes, and everything else are already structured and optimized in such a way that it shows compatibility with all screen sizes.
Is Tailwind better than Bootstrap?
The answer to this question is controversial. Tailwind is better than Bootstrap in terms of its utility-first approach. But at the same moment, it requires a steeper learning curve. In contrast, Bootstrap provides you with a more comprehensive set of components for quicker and better project design.
Can I make a responsive website using CSS?
Yes, obviously. You can make a responsive website using Cascading Style Sheets language. This is because it offers flexible grids, media queries, components, principles, and much more to help you in various ways designing a website.
What is the most loved CSS framework?
The most loved CSS framework is Bootstrap with the highest share in the CSS frameworks market. Apart from this, frameworks including Tailwind CSS and Bulma are also reputable and loved among developers worldwide.
What is the best CSS unit for responsiveness?
There is more than one CSS unit for responsiveness including EM, VW (View-width), VH (View-height), EM, Rem, and Percentage (%). These are used to maintain spaces, widths, font sizes, and other functions.
Is Tailwind worth learning in 2024?
Yes, it's worth learning Tailwind in 2024 because it offers necessary features like responsiveness and better configuration and fulfills specific needs. It's also an easy-to-customize CSS framework with a high market share.
