Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Materialize CSS VS Element UI

Compare Materialize CSS VS Element UI and see what are their differences

Materialize CSS logo Materialize CSS

A modern responsive front-end framework based on Material Design

Element UI logo Element UI

A Desktop UI Library. Element, a Vue 2.0 based component library for developers, designers and product managers.
  • Materialize CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-14
  • Element UI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-29

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.

Element UI features and specs

  • Comprehensive Component Library
    Element UI offers a wide range of well-designed components that cover most use cases, making it easier to develop complex interfaces.
  • Consistency
    The UI components maintain a consistent look and feel throughout the application, providing a professional and unified user experience.
  • Customization
    Element UI is highly customizable, allowing developers to easily modify the appearance and behavior of components to match their design requirements.
  • Documentation
    The library comes with comprehensive documentation, which includes examples and detailed guides to help developers quickly get up to speed.
  • Active Community
    It has an active community and regular updates, which means that any issues are quickly addressed, and new features are frequently added.
  • Integration with Vue.js
    Element UI is specifically designed for Vue.js, providing seamless integration and making it a go-to choice for Vue developers.

Possible disadvantages of Element UI

  • Bundle Size
    The complete library can be quite large, which may impact the performance and loading times of your application if not handled properly.
  • Limited to Vue.js
    Element UI is built specifically for Vue.js and is not easily compatible with other JavaScript frameworks, limiting its versatility.
  • Customizability Limitations
    While it is possible to customize the components, doing so can sometimes be complex and may require deep knowledge of the library and Vue.js.
  • Learning Curve
    For developers who are not familiar with Vue.js, there is a learning curve associated with both the framework and the Element UI components.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies and ensuring compatibility between different versions of Vue.js and Element UI can be challenging.
  • Scoped Stylings
    The styling of components may sometimes conflict with the scoped styles in your application, requiring additional adjustments.

Analysis of Materialize CSS

Overall verdict

  • Materialize CSS is a good choice if you're looking for a framework that emphasizes Material Design and comes with a sleek, modern interface. It's particularly useful for developers who want to quickly integrate Google's design philosophy without delving into custom styling or layout creation.

Why this product is good

  • Materialize CSS is a front-end framework based on Material Design principles developed by Google. It provides a comprehensive set of UI components that help developers create visually appealing and responsive web applications quickly. The framework includes a variety of pre-styled components like buttons, forms, cards, and much more, which adhere to the Material Design guidelines. This consistency in design components helps ensure a cohesive and professional look across web applications. Additionally, it simplifies responsive design with a grid system that's easy to implement, and it comes with excellent documentation and a supportive community.

Recommended for

    Materialize CSS is recommended for teams and developers who prefer Google's Material Design aesthetic, are building applications with a focus on rapid UI development, and value consistency and ease of use. It's also great for projects where a pre-existing UI library speeds up the development process, such as prototypes, admin dashboards, or smaller web applications. However, for highly customized UI components or non-Material Design projects, other frameworks might be more suitable.

Analysis of Element UI

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Element UI is considered to be a good choice for Vue.js applications, particularly for those who need a robust and mature set of UI components.

Why this product is good

  • Element UI is a popular UI library for Vue.js because it provides a comprehensive set of components that are both aesthetically pleasing and highly functional. It has a well-documented API and a wide range of customizable options, making it easy for developers to create professional-looking applications quickly. The active community and frequent updates ensure that it remains compatible with the latest versions of Vue.js and incorporates feedback from its users.

Recommended for

    Element UI is recommended for developers and teams building web applications with Vue.js who need a wide array of ready-to-use components, value a clean design, and appreciate a component library maintained by an active community.

Materialize CSS videos

Build A Travel Agency Theme With Materialize CSS 1.0.0

Element UI videos

Vue.js Element UI Component Library | Demo & Review

More videos:

  • Review - Element UI Vue Introduction (Component Framework) On Basics (First Look)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Materialize CSS and Element UI)
Design Tools
78 78%
22% 22
CSS Framework
88 88%
12% 12
Developer Tools
87 87%
13% 13
Development Tools
69 69%
31% 31

User comments

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Reviews

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

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 Bootstrapโ€™s 12-column grid format. The best part? Its extensive color palettes. So, if you want to work with Material Design (Googleโ€™s...
Source: hackr.io
15 Best CSS Frameworks: Professional Bootstrap and Foundation Alternatives
Itโ€™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...

Element UI Reviews

14 Best Vue UI Component Libraries 2023
This library is developed mostly by Chinese contributors and the original documentation was written in Chinese. Itโ€™s highly suggested to check out the internationalization guide before starting a project, as the default language of the project is Chinese. Element is a great kit for developing complex desktop UIs by teams of developers, designers, and product managers.
Source: athemes.com
15 of the Most Interesting Vue UI Component Libraries for 2023
Element, too, has significant documentation in Chinese, although Spanish and English translations are provided. Non-native Chinese speakers should go through the internationalization documentation before using Element in their projects.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Materialize CSS seems to be a lot more popular than Element UI. While we know about 28 links to Materialize CSS, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Element UI. 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.

Materialize CSS mentions (28)

  • JavaScript Awesome Package
    Materialize - Responsive front-end framework based on Material Design. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Mistakes Were Made
    Sure, why not use Blazor? It makes life easier for the developers who are primarily backend, to work on the frontend as well. Seems like the better choice. So what's next? The UI library. No shade to the long-time standing Bootstrap, but it's 2023 and there are so many other libraries one could use outside of Bootstrap; TailwindCSS, Bulma, Materialize CSS, just to name a few. Forget that for a minute, maybe we can... - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Top 5 Best CSS Frameworks for Responsive Web Design in 2024
    Materialize is a modern CSS framework based on Googleโ€™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 / almost 2 years 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 / over 2 years 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: over 3 years ago
View more

Element UI mentions (2)

What are some alternatives?

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

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

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

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

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

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