Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Fabricator VS Pattern Lab

Compare Fabricator VS Pattern Lab and see what are their differences

Fabricator logo Fabricator

Build your UI toolkit for website design

Pattern Lab logo Pattern Lab

Create atomic design systems with Pattern Lab.
  • Fabricator Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-05-15
  • Pattern Lab Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-20

Fabricator features and specs

  • Customization
    Fabricator allows for extensive customization, enabling developers to tailor the design system to their specific project needs.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, Fabricator is freely available for use and modification, which encourages collaboration and improvements from the community.
  • Scalability
    It is designed to scale with projects, supporting both small and large design systems without compromising performance.
  • Ease of Use
    The user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, which helps in quick adoption and efficient design system management.

Possible disadvantages of Fabricator

  • Limited Documentation
    The documentation for Fabricator might not be as comprehensive as other tools, which can make it difficult for new users to learn.
  • Community Support
    As a relatively niche tool, it may not have as large a community or as much third-party support as more popular design system tools.
  • Maintenance
    The project may not be as actively maintained or updated as some alternatives, which might lead to compatibility issues with newer technologies.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its ease of use, there might be an initial learning curve for developers new to the concept of design systems.

Pattern Lab features and specs

  • Component-Driven Development
    Pattern Lab encourages a modular approach by allowing developers to create reusable components, which promotes consistency and efficiency in developing user interfaces.
  • Atomic Design
    It is built on the Atomic Design methodology, which helps in designing systems by breaking down interfaces into basic building blocks, leading to more manageable and scalable design systems.
  • Live Style Guide
    Pattern Lab generates a live style guide that updates in real time as components are developed, making it easy for designers and developers to stay in sync with the design system.
  • Platform Agnostic
    Pattern Lab can be integrated with various development stacks and workflows, making it flexible and adaptable to a wide range of projects.
  • Enhanced Collaboration
    By facilitating a shared language and set of tools between designers and developers, Pattern Lab improves collaboration and reduces communication barriers.

Possible disadvantages of Pattern Lab

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For teams that are new to the Atomic Design methodology or to Pattern Lab itself, there can be a significant learning curve required to get up to speed.
  • Initial Setup Complexity
    Setting up a project can be complex, especially for beginners, as it requires understanding both the tool and the underlying design principles thoroughly.
  • Limited Customization
    Although flexible, Pattern Lab does have limitations in terms of customizations, which may not be suitable for very specific or unique project requirements.
  • Performance Overheads
    As projects grow in size and complexity, managing and compiling a large number of components can lead to performance overheads, affecting build times.
  • Maintenance Burden
    Keeping the Pattern Lab and its components in sync with the ongoing changes in projects can become a maintenance burden over time, requiring dedicated resources.

Fabricator videos

Sailrite Fabricator Review - The Lucky Needle - Walking Foot Sewing Machine

More videos:

  • Review - Comparing the Sailrite® Fabricator® Deluxe & Standard Sewing Machine Packages
  • Review - Testing My First Industrial Sewing Machine | Sailrite Fabricator

Pattern Lab videos

Introduction to Pattern Lab

More videos:

  • Review - Using Pattern Lab to Design More Efficiently

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Fabricator and Pattern Lab)
Design Tools
49 49%
51% 51
Website Builder
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
CSS Framework
39 39%
61% 61

User comments

Share your experience with using Fabricator and Pattern Lab. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Pattern Lab seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 6 times since March 2021. 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.

Fabricator mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Fabricator yet. Tracking of Fabricator recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Pattern Lab mentions (6)

  • Unlocking the frontend – a call for standardizing component APIs pt.2
    While this helped ease integration work, in parallel to that we also started exploring more systematic approaches on the frontend side itself. With the advent of Brad Frost Atomic Design, and tools like Pattern Lab, we started using a more component-centric approach. This included colocating all styling (CSS), behavior (JavaScript) and semantic structure (HTML) for a component, and way better encapsulation as a... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Atomic Design: A Methodology for Building Design Systems
    In order to apply this methodology in your work, you can use a tool called Pattern Lab, created by Brad Frost and Dave Olsen. Pattern Lab is a tool to create atomic design systems. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Integrating Accessibility In The Web Development Process
    Something that would really help to work with tested components and stay consistent with the code and guarantee code quality would be a component library created with Storybook or Pattern Lab, for example. Developers who have a high level of knowledge of how to write accessible code can create components and test them before implementing them. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • How do you make the styling of the site flexible to fast change, but not tedious to actually go in and change every single detail?
    You can read more about Atomic Design Systems and how it scales. I've used Patternlab and I find it awesome. Source: over 3 years ago
  • fractal.build as an atomic design tool
    Fractal seemed easier, at least to me, to understand and maintain, than PatternLab, which I failed to install due a bug in the current installer (and when I managed to install the grunt version, I was already told that there is fractal as a possible alternative). - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Fabricator and Pattern Lab, you can also consider the following products

Dimensions Toolkit - Chrome Extension for designers to test responsive websites.

Storybook - Storybook is an open source tool for developing UI components in isolation for React, Vue, and Angular. It makes building stunning UIs organized and efficient.

FlexboxPatterns - Build awesome user interfaces with CSS flexbox

Swanky Docs - A simple, flexible and powerful ecosystem for creating beautiful documentation.

Flexbox Grid - Grid based on CSS3 flexbox

Backlight - Backlight is a unique collaborative platform to build Design Systems code-side.📐 Design tokens🧩 Component code and stories📖 Documentation site📦 Managed release to npmEverything in one place, in a true collaborative workspace.Try 👉 backlight.dev