Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Material Design Lite VS HTML5 Boilerplate

Compare Material Design Lite VS HTML5 Boilerplate and see what are their differences

Material Design Lite logo Material Design Lite

Material Design Lite Components in HTML/CSS/JS

HTML5 Boilerplate logo HTML5 Boilerplate

A rock-solid default for HTML5 awesome.
  • Material Design Lite Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • HTML5 Boilerplate Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

Material Design Lite features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Material Design Lite (MDL) is a lightweight CSS and JavaScript framework that doesn't rely on any external dependencies, making it easy to integrate into projects while ensuring faster load times and better performance.
  • Google's Material Design Aesthetics
    MDL provides components and styles consistent with Google's Material Design guidelines, allowing developers to create visually appealing and modern user interfaces.
  • Easy to Use
    MDL uses straightforward HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, enabling developers, even those with minimal experience, to quickly build and design web applications.
  • Responsive Design
    Material Design Lite is built with mobile-first, responsive design principles, ensuring applications look good on both mobile and desktop devices.
  • Component Rich
    MDL offers a variety of ready-to-use UI components such as buttons, cards, menus, sliders, and more, which can speed up development time.

Possible disadvantages of Material Design Lite

  • Limited Customization
    While MDL offers a set of predefined styles for consistency, it can be challenging to customize beyond the provided options without delving deeply into the CSS.
  • No Longer Actively Maintained
    MDL is no longer actively maintained by Google, meaning there are no updates or improvements, potentially affecting compatibility with modern browsers and devices over time.
  • Basic Components Compared to Other Frameworks
    Compared to comprehensive frameworks like Angular Material or Bootstrap, MDL offers a relatively basic set of UI components, which might not satisfy all project needs.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Use
    While basic uses of MDL are simple, more advanced implementations might require a deeper understanding of the framework, which can impose a steep learning curve for new developers.
  • Potential Performance Overhead
    MDL's JavaScript components can add unnecessary overhead if not managed carefully, especially in complex applications where performance is critical.

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.

Material Design Lite videos

What is Material Design Lite?

More videos:

  • Review - Intro to using Material Design Lite
  • Review - Material Design Lite: All About Android 221

HTML5 Boilerplate videos

HTML5 Tutorials #5 - HTML5 Boilerplate

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Material Design Lite and HTML5 Boilerplate)
CSS Framework
32 32%
68% 68
Design Tools
30 30%
70% 70
Developer Tools
40 40%
60% 60
Development Tools
40 40%
60% 60

User comments

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Reviews

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

Material Design Lite Reviews

We have no reviews of Material Design Lite yet.
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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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, HTML5 Boilerplate should be more popular than Material Design Lite. 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.

Material Design Lite mentions (4)

  • Where can i find premade components like Navbars, Headers, Cards, Footers, etc.
    Https://getmdl.io/ No specific framework (e.g React, Angular) required. Source: over 2 years ago
  • The React roadmap for beginners you never knew you needed.
    Materialize, Material UI, Material Design Lite. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • How do i use material design in an html page ?
    I would recommend looking into an alternative such as https://getmdl.io/. Source: over 3 years ago
  • For some reason, button is not misaligned in CodePen but when the exact same code is in a normal HTML file, its misaligned and it looks weird
    Sorry if I'm not providing much context, but I'm using Material Design Lite (https://getmdl.io). Strangely, it doesn't work in other online HTML "compilers" like W3Schools TryIt. Source: almost 4 years ago

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

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Material Design Lite and HTML5 Boilerplate, you can also consider the following products

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

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

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

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

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

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