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Bootswatch VS Materialize CSS

Compare Bootswatch VS Materialize CSS and see what are their differences

Bootswatch logo Bootswatch

Free themes for Bootstrap

Materialize CSS logo Materialize CSS

A modern responsive front-end framework based on Material Design
  • Bootswatch Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-01
  • Materialize CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-14

Bootswatch features and specs

  • Easy Integration
    Bootswatch themes can be easily integrated into Bootstrap projects, allowing developers to quickly switch themes without extensive configuration changes.
  • Variety of Themes
    Bootswatch offers a wide range of themes to choose from, providing flexibility and a variety of design options for different project needs.
  • Free and Open Source
    All themes provided by Bootswatch are free to use and open-source, making it accessible for developers without cost concerns.
  • Consistent Updates
    Bootswatch is regularly updated in line with Bootstrap versions, ensuring compatibility and access to the latest features and bug fixes.
  • Customization
    While Bootswatch provides predefined themes, they are also customizable, allowing developers to tailor themes further according to project-specific requirements.

Possible disadvantages of Bootswatch

  • Limited Custom Designs
    Although Bootswatch offers multiple themes, the design options can be somewhat generic and might not suit highly tailored design needs.
  • Dependency on Bootstrap
    Bootswatch themes require a base knowledge of Bootstrap, making it less ideal for developers unfamiliar with the Bootstrap framework.
  • Potential Overhead
    Integrating Bootswatch may add additional CSS dependencies, potentially increasing the size of the final stylesheets if not managed properly.
  • Not Unique
    Since Bootswatch themes are publicly available, using them as-is can result in websites that look similar to others, lacking uniqueness.
  • Less Control Over Details
    Using predefined themes often means limited control over specific style details, which might be a drawback for projects requiring intricate design specifications.

Materialize CSS features and specs

  • Responsive Design
    Materialize CSS provides a responsive grid system, making it easier to create layouts that work well on various screen sizes and devices.
  • Material Design
    Adheres to Google's Material Design principles, offering a modern and professional look that is consistent across web applications.
  • Component Variety
    Offers a wide range of pre-built components, including forms, buttons, cards, and navigation bars, which helps speed up development.
  • Customization
    Provides options to customize components using Sass, making it flexible for specific design needs.
  • Built-in JavaScript
    Includes built-in JavaScript components like modals, carousels, and tabs, which enhance functionality without requiring additional libraries.

Possible disadvantages of Materialize CSS

  • Learning Curve
    Although it follows Material Design guidelines, there is a learning curve associated with understanding and implementing its various components and classes.
  • File Size
    Including the full library can make your project heavier, affecting load times, especially for users on slower connections.
  • Customization Complexity
    While customizable, deeply customizing or overriding default styles can sometimes be complicated and time-consuming.
  • Dependency on jQuery
    Some components still rely on jQuery, adding to the library size and potentially conflicting with modern JavaScript practices.
  • Community Support
    Compared to larger frameworks like Bootstrap, Materialize CSS has a smaller community, which can result in fewer third-party resources and plugins.

Bootswatch videos

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Materialize CSS videos

Build A Travel Agency Theme With Materialize CSS 1.0.0

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Bootswatch and Materialize CSS)
Developer Tools
9 9%
91% 91
Design Tools
8 8%
92% 92
Web App
100 100%
0% 0
CSS Framework
3 3%
97% 97

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Bootswatch and Materialize CSS

Bootswatch Reviews

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Materialize CSS Reviews

15 Top Bootstrap Alternatives For Frontend Developers in 2024
Material Design is a design language that combines classic principles of successful design with innovation and technology. One of the downsides of Materialize is that it does not support older versions of web browsers, and sometimes it does not handle certain nestings of components properly, resulting in an odd appearance.
Source: coursesity.com
9 Best Bootstrap Alternatives | Best Frontend Frameworks [2024]
Materialize is a modern responsive front-end framework based on the Material Design principles of Google. Material design is a design language created by Google, which combines traditional design methods with innovations and technology.
Source: hackr.io
Top 10 Best CSS Frameworks for Front-End Developers in 2022
Created by Google in 2014, Materialize is a responsive UI framework for websites and Android apps. It provides many ready-to-use components, classes, and starter templates. It is compatible with Sass and has a responsive layout based on Bootstrap’s 12-column grid format. The best part? Its extensive color palettes. So, if you want to work with Material Design (Google’s...
Source: hackr.io
15 Best CSS Frameworks: Professional Bootstrap and Foundation Alternatives
It’s specifically designed to help you develop faster using a standard template and customizable components. As the name suggests, Materialize is based on the basic principles of Material Design.
10 of the Best Bootstrap Alternatives
Materialize is a Design-inspired front-end framework that offers everything you need to create beautiful websites and apps. It includes a responsive grid system, CSS components, and animation libraries. Materialize is also easy to use and customizable, making it the perfect choice for any project. Furthermore, a single basic responsive framework across all phases minimizes...

Social recommendations and mentions

Materialize CSS might be a bit more popular than Bootswatch. We know about 26 links to it since March 2021 and only 18 links to Bootswatch. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Bootswatch mentions (18)

  • A tour of CLI tools for installing Java and creating projects
    ? What is the base name of your application? Jhispterdemo ? Which *type* of application would you like to create? Monolithic application (recommended for simple projects) ? What is your default Java package name? com.mycompany.myapp ? Would you like to use Maven or Gradle for building the backend? Gradle ? Do you want to make it reactive with Spring WebFlux? Yes ? Which *type* of authentication would you like to... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • I made a tool that takes any Pokemon and makes a colour palette out of it! (for web devs) v2
    The colors primarily, I suppose. Something similar to what you see in https://bootswatch.com/. Source: about 2 years ago
  • *very new to using R on posit cloud* | is there a list of themes that can be put in the “theme:” function anywhere? i haven’t been able to find any online. just curious! i like to make my docs look pretty :)
    That ^ . And I’ve found the Bootswatch page a very helpful visual aid. https://bootswatch.com/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Update 1.6 for Bucket budgeting app OpenBudgeteer
    Themes are now supported. Visit Bootswatch for more details. To select a theme use the new option APPSETTINGS_THEME as docker environment variable or in the appsettings.json file. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How should I style my django app?
    Others have said Bootstrap already, let me just chime in and point you towards bootswatch (https://bootswatch.com/) , they have great, free themes with great examples, I basically learned bootstrap in large parts by copying example code from their site and tweaking it to my needs / dissecting and trying to understand it. Source: over 2 years ago
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Materialize CSS mentions (26)

  • Top 5 Best CSS Frameworks for Responsive Web Design in 2024
    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. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Front-end Framework: Comparing Bootstrap, Foundation and Materialize
    Materialize was created by a team of developers at Google, inspired by the principles of Material Design. Material Design is a design language developed by Google that emphasizes tactile surfaces, realistic lighting, and bold, graphic interfaces. Materialize aims to bring these principles to web development by providing a framework with ready-to-use components and styles based on Material Design. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Took a web development job without much experience, am I doomed?
    If you wanna make it look nice use materialize css works great with Django templates. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Best 3 Bootstrap Alternatives
    You can also visit the Materialize website and GitHub repository which currently has garnered over 38k likes and has been forked over 4k times by developers. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • All About Hacktober Fest 2022 You Need To Know
    This repository consists of files required to deploy a Web App or PWA created with Materialize Css. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Bootswatch and Materialize CSS, you can also consider the following products

Bootstrap Zero - Open-source, free Bootstrap templates collection.

Bootstrap - Simple and flexible HTML, CSS, and JS for popular UI components and interactions

Tailwind CSS - A utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom user interfaces.

Bootstrap Magic - Create your Bootstrap 4.0 themes easily with magic

Foundation - The most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world

HackerThemes - Bootstrap 4 themes and tools for web developers