Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

HTML5 Boilerplate VS Cirrus CSS

Compare HTML5 Boilerplate VS Cirrus CSS and see what are their differences

HTML5 Boilerplate logo HTML5 Boilerplate

A rock-solid default for HTML5 awesome.

Cirrus CSS logo Cirrus CSS

The SCSS framework for the modern web. It's component based, customizable, and completely open source.
  • HTML5 Boilerplate Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • Cirrus CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-08-03

Cirrus is a modular, responsive, and component centric SCSS framework aimed at bringing beautiful, hassle-free styling. Cirrus works right away with minimal styling. From there, add components and tweak using utility classes to make it truly your own.

HTML5 Boilerplate features and specs

  • Standardized Best Practices
    HTML5 Boilerplate incorporates industry-standard best practices for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, ensuring a robust foundation for web development projects.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    The template includes code that helps ensure compatibility across different web browsers, reducing the likelihood of rendering issues.
  • Performance Optimization
    The project includes performance optimizations like caching rules and minified files, helping to boost site speed and improve user experience.
  • Security Enhancements
    HTML5 Boilerplate comes with built-in security features such as sensible default security settings and recommendations, making the project more secure out-of-the-box.
  • Responsive Design
    The templates provide a responsive grid layout and other responsive design features that ensure sites look good on various screen sizes.
  • Documentation and Community Support
    Extensive documentation and a strong community make it easier for developers to understand and use HTML5 Boilerplate effectively.

Possible disadvantages of HTML5 Boilerplate

  • Learning Curve
    While documentation is excellent, beginners might find the extensive setup and various options overwhelming at first.
  • Overhead for Small Projects
    The default setup includes many features that might be unnecessary for small or simple projects, leading to potential overhead.
  • Customization Required
    Developers often need to customize the default settings to fit specific requirements, which can add to the initial setup time.
  • Dependence on External Libraries
    It may include or recommend certain libraries or frameworks which might not be necessary for every project, leading to potential bloat.
  • Not Always Up-to-Date
    Despite active maintenance, there can be periods where the project doesn't immediately incorporate the latest web development trends and technologies.

Cirrus CSS features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Cirrus CSS is designed to be lightweight, meaning it doesn't add a lot of overhead to your web project, which can result in faster loading times.
  • Responsive Design
    The framework includes responsive utilities that make it easier to create mobile-friendly designs with minimal effort.
  • Modern Look
    Cirrus offers a modern aesthetic with a collection of design elements that can give your project a contemporary appearance.
  • Ease of Use
    The framework is simple to set up and integrate into projects, allowing developers to get started quickly without extensive configuration.
  • Customization
    Cirrus CSS offers customization options that allow developers to tailor styles and designs to their specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of Cirrus CSS

  • Limited Ecosystem
    Compared to larger frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation, Cirrus has a smaller user base and fewer community resources.
  • Learning Curve
    For developers familiar with other CSS frameworks, there may be a learning curve as they adjust to Cirrus's classes and utilities.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    As a smaller framework, Cirrus might not be compatible with some third-party plugins and components built for more widely-used frameworks.
  • Less Documentation
    Cirrus CSS may have fewer or less detailed documentation and tutorials compared to more established CSS frameworks.
  • Limited Features
    Some advanced features available in larger frameworks might be missing, which could be a drawback for projects requiring those capabilities.

HTML5 Boilerplate videos

HTML5 Tutorials #5 - HTML5 Boilerplate

More videos:

  • Review - Paul Irish on HTML5 Boilerplate
  • Review - An introduction to HTML5 Boilerplate v5.0

Cirrus CSS videos

No Cirrus CSS videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to HTML5 Boilerplate and Cirrus CSS)
CSS Framework
55 55%
45% 45
Design Tools
55 55%
45% 45
Developer Tools
61 61%
39% 39
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing HTML5 Boilerplate and Cirrus CSS.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Cirrus CSS's answer:

Cirrus is possible thanks to open source contributors on Dart Sass and True (Sass unit testing framework).

What makes your product unique?

Cirrus CSS's answer:

There are often debates on whether component-centric frameworks such as Bootstrap or atomic-classed frameworks such as Tailwind are better for its: - Learning curve - Maintainability - Flexibility - Ease of use

I am a fan of both frameworks as they have their strengths depending on the situation. With component-based frameworks, it is quite easy to slap a couple of different elements together and you have a working website. However, customization may require writing lots of other CSS yourself which takes time away from building your product. Utility-class-based frameworks offer customization that is as granular as it gets short of writing the CSS yourself but without the overhead. A major drawback is that being able to customize and use tree shaking requires direct integration of Tailwind into your project and a CDN version is not feasible for production.

Cirrus is a framework that takes the best parts of both of these types of frameworks and provides: - Many pre-built basic components to accelerate your development velocity (e.g. Avatars, Modals, Tabs, etc.). To keep your code clean, all component classes are built following the BEM convention. - A suite of common utility classes to help tweak and polish your designs when needed. These utility classes are so powerful that you can construct components with them alone. - Different CDN builds of the framework that can be dropped in at any browser (core, ext, all). Choose one that fits your needs.

With the release of 0.7, much of the framework can now be customized. Since the framework is written entirely in SCSS, it can take advantage of all the existing APIs for class generation. The new configuration system in Cirrus allows you to: - Add/Edit/Delete component styles. - Add/Edit/Delete utility classes. - Specify which breakpoints are supported. - Toggle which classes should have viewport variants (to help save on build size). - Enable/Disable different parts of the framework. - And more :)

What's the story behind your product?

Cirrus CSS's answer:

Started in late 2016, Cirrus was built as a side project of mine to foray into web development. Since then it has grown immensely with the addition of components, more utility classes, CSS grid, etc. My main goal for this framework is to make web development as painless as possible -- and that always starts with great documentation and consistency in design choices.

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare HTML5 Boilerplate and Cirrus CSS

HTML5 Boilerplate Reviews

15 Best CSS Frameworks: Professional Bootstrap and Foundation Alternatives
Even though Bootstrap is relatively easy to learn, it is much more than just a front-end template. So what if you need a fully compatible JavaScript, CSS3, and HTML5 template? In this case, HTML5 Boilerplate is a good choice.
20 Best Front-End Frameworks For Bootstrap Alternative
Just like its name, HTML5 Boilerplate provides you HTML5 ready template that has been optimized to meet the most standard of HTML new features. By using this template, you can create a fast, robust and responsive site that is able to adapt to any kind of browser, even the old ones like Internet Explorer.
Source: beebom.com
15 Fabulous Alternatives to Bootstrap, Foundation and Skeleton
HTML5 Boilerplate is a collective effort of prominent web developers in the industry. This platform is perfect for designing adaptable websites that work without any performance issues.
Source: www.agriya.com
The 21 Most Used Bootstrap Alternatives
HTML5 Boilerplate helps you build fast, robust, and adaptable web apps or sites. Kick-start your project with the combined knowledge and effort of 100s of developers, all in one little package.
8 Bootstrap Alternatives
HTML5 Boilerplate isn’t really a framework but rather it is a professional front-end template to give you a head start building a robust and adaptable web app. Boilerplate comes baked with Modernizr, Normalize.css and jQuery to help you create pages that work across browsers and can adapt to browsers that don’t offer support for certain features.
Source: modernweb.com

Cirrus CSS Reviews

15 Top Bootstrap Alternatives For Frontend Developers in 2024
Regarding its extensive suite of components, Cirrus not only provides base styles for page layouts but also a variety of different components. It works immediately with minimal styling. From there, you can add components and customize using utility classes to truly make it your own.
Source: coursesity.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, HTML5 Boilerplate seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 18 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.

HTML5 Boilerplate mentions (18)

  • How to Write a Good index.html File
    Also, if you want a starter template that goes further than just the index.html file, you might want to check out HTML5 Boilerplate. It's a great resource to get up an running really fast when building a Progressive Web App. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • html5 boilerplate with bootstrap
    Download the HTML5 Boilerplate template from the official website (https://html5boilerplate.com/). You can choose to download the standard or the enhanced version, depending on your needs. Source: about 2 years ago
  • How to create a basic webpage. Hey everyone , I need to create a basic web page that has a few hyperlinks at the top, some pictures, and a few paragraphs. I have no clue how to start this, first time doing something like this. Any advice / tips?
    Also https://html5boilerplate.com might be good starting point. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Web Developer path
    Learn to a medium degree of proficiency HTML and CSS. Dig through something like the source code for https://html5boilerplate.com/ and try to understand why they're doing the things that they're doing. Learn Git and use it in practice. Even if you're just working on your own code. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Do you still use HTML5 Boilerplate when starting new projects? what are alternatives?
    Do you guys still use HTML5 Boilerplate when starting new projects? Https://html5boilerplate.com/. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

Cirrus CSS mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Cirrus CSS yet. Tracking of Cirrus CSS recommendations started around Aug 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing HTML5 Boilerplate and Cirrus CSS, you can also consider the following products

Materialize CSS - A modern responsive front-end framework based on Material Design

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

Semantic UI - A UI Component library implemented using a set of specifications designed around natural language

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

Material UI - A CSS Framework and a Set of React Components that Implement Google's Material Design

UIKit - A lightweight and modular front-end framework for developing fast and powerful web interfaces