Looking for a UI framework that helps you create material web design easily? Want to create a web design just like many of the Google web products? This article will help.
Android lollipop bring the new design philosophy called material design. It was a design overhaul for the Android. The design enthusiast parise the new design language.
It’s been a hot topic for designers to create the web port of Android material design. Meaning creating a framework which allows easy creation of web design that look and feel like the material design.
I am pretty sure you are aware of Bootstrap responsive web design framework. The framework is topping the UI framework chart since the version 2.x. It’s still growing at stable pace.
But the only down side of the the framework is that the base design it ships which looks bit old now. For sure you can change or override the default design patterns with custom css but the core remains the same!
The material web design is the latest trend amongst the web designers. Initially the designers have to rely on the various components from here and there to create a complete material web design.
Well, that pain is no longer exist! You now have plenty of UI framework that helps you create material web design easily.
Here are the top 10 material web design frameworks:
- Material Design for Bootstrap
- Paper Theme for Bootstrap
- Materialize
- Material Design Lite
- MUI CSS
- Material Foundation
- Material
- Framework7
- Framaterial
- Polymer
1. Material Design for Bootstrap:
If you have a clear ground with Bootstrap and looking for the framework that help you create a material design using Bootstrap, this framework might be for you.
The framework is built on top of Bootstrap so you still get the grid system to architecture you layout.
It is a feature packed framework with plenty of cool looking CSS and JavaScript components along with examples.
The framework comes in two distributions, the free one contains all the necessary element to make the material design.
The pro version price starts at $79 would come with some added features like ready made advanced components like advanced material design alert, carousel with thumbnails, and many others.
2. Paper Theme for Bootstrap:
If you are looking for an complete free bootstrap based material design UI framework, then you might want to have look at the Paper theme developed by the team at bootswatch.
While the UI framework is not the exact clone or port of the Android material design, but in majority of the cases it gives you the similar kind of feeling with the UI components design and effects.
This framework would be ideal for those who want to transform their existing bootstrap based website with the new material UI design.
If you are just starting up you will get the example of all major component along with code copy feature you get with official bootstrap documentation.
3. Materialize:
If you are really looking for a material UI design framework and the one with zero dollar price tag. Materialize is the framework you should definitely have a look at.
It is not based on the Bootstrap framework but if you have know the Bootstrap framework, you will find it easy to adopt.
In my opinion this might be one of the closest port of Android material design. You get everything from components, css styling, JavaScript for interactivity, features for mobile view and more.
The best part of the framework is the SASS version, it allows developers to choose the components before downloading the framework.
4. Material Design Lite:
If you want something offered by Google, you may want to consider this UI framework. This might be the nearest Android material design port you will find on any framework.
The framework is up to date, has all the components that you may want in any material web design, issue tracking and resolutions is on point, and above all it’s free. You can download your copy from github repository.
It has a decent getting started guide that will help you understand the framework very well. You have an example ready for every components.
You will be able to use the framework in all possible ways like self hosting, CDN and SAAS.
5. MUI:
Are you looking for a framework with smaller footprint? MUI is probably the lightest framework with 12kb gzip size!
The framework get you covered with the basic Google material design look and feel. The framework is easy to understand and learn.
The getting started guide will help go through the css classes and components provided by the framework. Additionally the framework is using the similar grid system like the Bootstrap. So architecturing the design would not be an issue.
6. Material Foundation:
If you are a foundation framework fan and you want to add a little twist of material design to your existing design, this framework might be the best choice.
This might not be the complete material design framework like the others we have seen earlier, it offers some of the material design components that may help you give material design like feel.
The installation is pretty easy, you need to replace the foundation with material foundation and everything on your project should look like material design. There might be some components that may require explicit changes.
Read the official guideline on the GitHub repo for more information about the features, documentation, and installation guide.
7. Material:
Material is the material design framework build on top of the Bootstrap framework. It uses the same grid system, same components, and all the other things you are familiar with bootstrap.
The main goal of this framework is the provide the material design layout to each bootstrap components. It will help designers keep on using their favorite responsive design framework without worrying about the material layout.
Additionally, the framework adds some material design specific components like floating action buttons, pickers and steppers to complete the material design framework.
While the framework is using the Bootstrap at its core, so you might need to learn it from the base. The detailed documentation will help you learn the changes and those additionally components of material layout.
8. Framework7:
Are you creating a hybrid mobile application for Android and iOS? This UI framework might help. The framework has to distinct version for each Android and iOS.
Hybrid mobile applications or in other words cross platform mobile applications are in trend as they are saving a lot of development time and the money.
There are quite a few frameworks available to make your web apps journey easy. Framework7 is one of them. The iOS version of the framework gives almost the same feel like the native iOS component design.
While and Android version of the framework delivers the material design. The android version component look almost the same as the native material design android components.
9. Framaterial:
Framaterial is another material design framework that you can use out of the box without any dependency.
The open-source framework will help you create single page web apps, websites, and the modern complex websites without the help of any third party libraries, framework or plugins.
The installation is easy, you just need to download the framework zip file. Extract it under the root of your project and include it in your project to start using it.
You get a proper documentation to get you started with the framework and component usage.
10 Polymer:
It’s a Google’s project that houses collection of components with material web design. It help you speed up your web development process. It helps you create anything from buttons to complete applications.
It packs the collection of web components that implements the material design. At core it uses the paper elements collection. It includes paper-button, paper-checkbox, paper-dialog etc.
You can use it to create your won web components, it helps you go with the modular development approach. The component you develop can be used in any of your future applications. Additionally, you can use the Polymer App Toolbox to create progressive web apps.
Conclusion:
The material web design is definitely is in trend and Google using it in many of it’s products makes the trend every stronger. If you are developer or designer looking for an easier ways to create a new or cast an existing design, here are the list of 10 material web design framework worth checking.
Author Bio:
Being a web designer & developer of over seven years Darshan shares a passion of helping designers out with latest design trends and technology. Being a designer you can avail his professional PSD to Bootstrap conversion service which he offers at very affordable price.
