Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Shards UI Kit VS Bootswatch

Compare Shards UI Kit VS Bootswatch and see what are their differences

Shards UI Kit logo Shards UI Kit

A free and modern UI kit based on Bootstrap 4.

Bootswatch logo Bootswatch

Free themes for Bootstrap
Not present
  • Bootswatch Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-01

Shards UI Kit features and specs

  • Modern Design
    Shards UI Kit offers a sleek and modern design that is appealing and fits well with contemporary web projects.
  • Component Variety
    It provides a comprehensive set of components, which makes it easy to build different parts of a website without needing external resources.
  • Lightweight
    The UI kit is lightweight, ensuring that it doesn't significantly increase the load time of web projects, which is vital for user experience and SEO.
  • Responsive
    Shards UI Kit is designed to be fully responsive, allowing components to look and function well on devices of all sizes.
  • Customization
    It offers good flexibility for customization, enabling developers to adapt components to meet the specific branding and style needs of their projects.

Possible disadvantages of Shards UI Kit

  • Limited Documentation
    Some users may find the documentation lacking in depth, which can lead to a steeper learning curve for those unfamiliar with the tool.
  • Dependency on Bootstrap
    Shards UI Kit is built on top of Bootstrap, which could be a limitation for projects that require a design completely free from Bootstrap's styling influences.
  • Community Support
    There might be limited community support compared to more established frameworks, potentially making it harder to find solutions to specific problems.
  • Updates and Maintenance
    The frequency of updates and ongoing maintenance could be less compared to larger-scale UI kits, which may affect long-term project sustainability.
  • Feature Limitations
    Shards UI Kit may not have as many advanced features or pre-built themes as some other UI kits, potentially requiring more development work for feature-heavy applications.

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.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Shards UI Kit and Bootswatch)
Design Tools
57 57%
43% 43
Developer Tools
46 46%
54% 54
Web App
42 42%
58% 58
Prototyping
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Bootswatch 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.

Shards UI Kit mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Shards UI Kit yet. Tracking of Shards UI Kit recommendations started around Mar 2021.

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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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Shards UI Kit and Bootswatch, you can also consider the following products

Now UI Kit - A beautiful Bootstrap 4 UI kit. Yours free.

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

Bots UI Kit - Fully customizable Sketch UI Kit for Messenger Platform

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

Dashboard UI Kit - A modern & responsive dashboard UI kit for designers.

Bootstrap Magic - Create your Bootstrap 4.0 themes easily with magic