When developing websites or Web applications, web developers often need to write CSS, and if every project starts from zero, it will take a lot of time and effort, and it will deal with a lot of repetitive work.

Gradually, engineers realized that they could take abstract modules and reuse them to speed up development. As a result, the CSS framework was born, and more and more engineers favor it.

Here are 15 of the best CSS frameworks of 2019 that you can make sure you don’t miss if you want to develop your website or web application faster and easier


HOW | CSS framework HOW to help the front-end development engineer?

Before you get started, it’s worth taking a look at the CSS framework.

Simply put, a CSS framework is a pre-prepared web site infrastructure. Almost every CSS framework has some basic structure, such as grid design, interactive UI design patterns, Web typography, tooltips, buttons, ICONS, form elements, and so on. These pre-prepared frameworks allow engineers to customize and extend on a relatively mature template, rather than developing from scratch.

The best part is that many CSS frameworks can be reused even for different projects, which saves time to a greater extent.


According to | WHY need to use a CSS framework?

Sure, CSS has many advantages, but it’s not perfect, which leads many engineers to question whether a CSS framework is really necessary.

In my opinion, using the CSS framework is very efficient. If I had to make a final decision, I would say that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages:


First, the CSS framework can help engineers develop websites faster

When developing a website or web application, time is critical, and using the CSS framework can greatly save time. And CSS frameworks are almost always highly customizable, with no significant impact on design restoration.

In addition, for primary front-end development, the role of the CSS framework will be more obvious. Using an off-the-shelf web infrastructure and its tools and widgets can help developers develop projects more smoothly, even if their development level is not good enough.


Second, CSS frameworks can be used to quickly build wireframes or prototype projects

Whether it’s web design or product design, prototyping is crucial. Project prototypes help teams quickly verify and test project correctness. If you use a CSS framework, you can prototype your site faster for early testing.

One more thing: Rapid prototyping tools can also be used for product managers to draw prototypes.


WHAT | WHAT are the best CSS framework in 2019?

Here are 15 CSS frameworks that we’ve carefully selected, each with its best features, pros and cons, to help you find the one that best fits your needs.


1. Bootstrap

Bootstrap is the most widely used CSS framework available today. It is an open source toolkit for front-end development from Twitter. The most popular version is Bootstrap 4, which was released in 2018. Compared to Bootstrap 3, Bootstrap 4 has many new features and functions, such as a new color scheme, new modifiers, and new utility categories. In addition, Bootstrap 4 was built using SASS, which means Bootstrap can now be used for both LESS and SASS.



Bootstrap Bootstrap

1) Responsive design

Bootstrap’s responsive design solution is based on its grid design system, which is easy and easy to operate. Developers can quickly create a Flexbox-based website layout that is compatible with all browsers. Bootstrap was also the first CSS framework to introduce mobile-first design.

2) Massive resources

Bootstrap has a very rich front-end framework library, including site layout, site templates, Bootstrap theme templates, admin panel, and a large number of UI components such as buttons, forms, cards, progress bars, and so on. These pre-built components can be used directly.

3) Easy to learn

Bootstrap is easy to get started, and many designers learn the Bootstrap framework at the pre-school end.


2. Foundation

Compared with other CSS frameworks, Foundation is relatively professional and has more comprehensive functions, so it is also difficult to learn. As a more advanced and complex framework, Foundation is extremely readable, flexible, and customizable. These features also make it one of the preferred frameworks for creating responsive websites and applications, and many large sites like Facebook, Ebay, Mozilla, Disney, Adobe, and others use the framework.



More features and features of Foundation:

1) A powerful email framework

In addition to web sites and Web applications, Foundation can create beautifully looking, responsive HTML e-mails that can be adapted to any device.

2) Online training service support

Foundation is hard to learn, so Zurb, the Foundation’s development team, has created online training courses and professional consulting services.

3) Easier to customize

Foundation is much more flexible than Boostrap. The things Bootstrap produces are often very similar, but Foundation can do a very high degree of customization, and front-end developers can fully control the UI if they are skilled enough.


3. Pure


Pure is a lightweight, responsive CSS framework created by Yahoo in 2014. Built on normalize.css, it allows developers to use its grid design and menus to create highly responsive page layouts.

Unlike Bootstrap, Pure is responsive by default, so you can’t disable the responsive option. Also, as the name suggests, Pure is a Pure CSS framework that contains no JavaScript components and is very light and small, with the entire module compressed to a mere 3.8KB.


4. Bulma


Bulma is a free open source project based on the Flexbox layout model. The CSS framework is also lightweight, responsive, and mobile-first. For developers, Bulma, along with Bootstrap and Foundation, ranks among the top three most popular CSS frameworks, with more than 150,000 developers using Bulma worldwide.

Another reason For Bulma’s popularity is its highly readable naming conventions, which are much cheaper to learn for new developers. It’s also interesting to note that Bulma is a star player on Github.


5. Semantic UI


Semantic UI is an incredibly user-friendly, responsive front-end framework with over 3,000 theme variables and over 50 UI components that can quickly build beautiful web pages. Semantic UI also integrates with many third-party repositories, including React, Angular, Meteor, Ember, and more, making it easier for developers.

Semantic UI officials have been touting one of their biggest highlights — “human-friendly HTML,” which means that developers can use a common language to visually display categorization and naming, so there’s almost no barrier to understanding the code.

In addition, Semantic UIs can create more aesthetically pleasing interfaces and layouts by default than Boostrap’s many similar UIs or Foundation’s UIs that require custom actions.


6. UI kit


UI Kit is a lightweight CSS and web UI design framework. Its biggest feature is that it is as versatile as other CSS frameworks, but it pursues minimalism and is lighter in volume. It can almost be described as a small sparrow with all five internal organs.

With a plethora of SVG ICONS, fonts, and components, UI Kit, combined with its powerful responsive design, unified UI style, and flexible customization options, allows developers to quickly create simple, modular Web interfaces.

In addition, developers can use HTML in the framework to create more advanced Flexbox layouts.


7. Materialize CSS


Materialize CSS is a responsive front-end framework developed by Google in 2014. It is based on Google’s Material Design, so it is particularly suitable for websites or projects on the Android platform.

At the moment, there are two main groups of people who use this framework: developers and designers who love Google Material Design. Materialise CSS is really good, so it’s a natural fit for Material Design enthusiasts.

The second is a developer who is familiar with Boostrap. Because The Materialize CSS also uses the 12-column grid design pattern of Bootstrap, it will be familiar with using Materialize CSS to quickly create responsive page layouts.

Try Materialise CSS if you are one of them.


8. Milligram


Milligram is one of the lightest and smallest CSS frameworks, compressed to a minimum of 2KB and thus providing minimal styling Settings. Milligram is light and small, but still functional, with a full suite of Web development tools and leveraging principles from the CSS3 specification to help developers develop quickly.


9. Skeleton


Skeleton is a very responsive CSS framework. Like Milligram, it is very light and small, with only 400 lines of source code, but it still has raster designs, layouts, buttons, forms, lists, tables, and other features that help developers quickly create projects.

If you’re working on a lightweight project, or if you don’t need a lot of utilities from a large framework, using Skeleton might be a good choice.


10. Tailwind CSS


Tailwind CSS is a highly customizable CSS framework, and it beats almost all other CSS frameworks in this regard.

So how does Tailwind do it?


First, the Tailwind framework is written in PostCSS and configured using JavaScript. In this way, the developer has complete control over the style of the web UI, including color, border size, word weight, spacing, shading, and so on.

For example, Tailwind creates buttons that look like this:

  • Pill button

  • Outline

  • The 3 d effect

Second, Tailwind doesn’t have a lot of pre-styled UI components, but instead focuses on utilities, so developers can create their own UI. But learning the utility isn’t easy, especially if you don’t know anything about Atomic CSS.


11. Spectre


Spectre. CSS is a lightweight, responsive and modern CSS framework built on Flexbox layouts with elegant design looks, layouts and components. All components of Spectre are also created entirely using CSS, so you don’t need to use any JavaScript language to use it.


12. Base


Base is a responsive CSS framework that is also very lightweight, but still powerful, with multiple independent templates for easy selection and use. It also has a mobile-first design and is compatible with major browsers, including IE 10+.


13. Picnic CSS


Picnic is also a lightweight CSS framework, compressed to less than 10KB. The framework features multiple interactive components, including grids, forms, tabs, tooltips, and more, that help developers quickly create responsive web sites and Web applications.


14. Mustard UI


The Mustard UI is an entry-level CSS framework. If you’re new to the CSS framework, you can start with its modules, zero barriers, almost immediately. It has limited functionality, but it’s great as a jumping-off point.


15. Dead Simple Grid


Dead Simple Grid is a very useful tool, but it’s also a small one. It’s an open source project, with only 250 bytes of CSS code and 2 categories.

It may not even be strictly considered a complete CSS framework, but it provides a very useful and powerful grid system for front-end development projects, which is why it is recommended.


More responsive CSS frameworks recommended


1. Susy

Susy is a lightweight SASS-based raster layout framework that helps developers simplify the responsive raster layout development process. With Susy, developers can also use float, Flexbox, table, and other CSS technologies.


2. Animate.css

Animate. CSS helps developers quickly add CSS animations, including transitions, transforms, bounces, scrolling, and more.


3. Paper CSS

Paper CSS is a CSS framework built using LESS.


4. NES.css

Ns. CSS is an NES-style CSS framework that provides only components, no layouts.

5. Tent CSS

Tent CSS is a simple CSS framework with the infrastructure to build your website.


6. Simplegrid

Simple Grid is a lightweight CSS Grid with a 12-column Grid design that allows you to quickly build responsive websites.


Questions about the CSS framework


1. Is Bootstrap a good CSS framework?

Of course. Bootstrap is the first CSS framework introduced in this article. It is also the most commonly used CSS framework. If you are interested in Boostrap, you are advised to use the latest Bootstrap 4.


2. Is Bootstrap better than CSS?

CSS is a computer language, Bootstrap is a front-end development framework, and Bootstrap is based on HTM, CSS, and JavaScript. Both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages in use, both of which development engineers need to master.


3. Is Flexbox a frame?

Flexbox is not a frame. Flexbox Flexible Box Layout Module (Flexbox) is a new feature added in CSS3. It is essentially a Layout mode that helps developers quickly create web layouts.


4. Is HTML a framework?

HTML is not a framework. HTML (Hypertext Marked Language) Chinese for Hypertext Markup Language, is a markup Language. The development engineer can write the interface information according to certain rules into HTML file, and let the browser recognize, become the web page we see.


If you have other good CSS framework open source project, welcome to share oh ~