Best UI libraries for React

Published on August 11, 2022 Updated on June 13, 2024

If you don’t like writing CSS, you can use a UI library that does all the hard work for you. But there are a lot of options. So In this article, I will compare the best React UI libraries and tell you which one is the best. Let’s begin!

Contents

React-Bootstrap

React-Bootstrap

Almost every dev knows bootstrap because of its large community. React-bootstrap is based on the Bootstrap CSS framework which is converted into react components.

Example

So If I needed to add a button, I can import and use it like this.

import Button from 'react-bootstrap/Button';
 
function Home() {
	return <Button variant="primary">Primary</Button>;
}

Pros

  • High community Support
  • Lots of components
  • Free templates
  • Maintained

Cons

  • Design looks the same (You’ve seen that focus ring many times)

MUI (Material UI)

MUI

If you like Material Design (Like me) this library is the best.

Example

Adding a simple button would be like this:

import Button from '@mui/material/Button';
 
function Home() {
	return <Button variant="text">Text button!</Button>;
}

Pros

  • Community is good
  • Good UI components
  • Provides utilities
  • Good documentation
  • Typescript support
  • Highly Customizable

Cons

  • If you don’t like material design, things may not be good

Ant Design

Ant Design

Ant design is a minimalistic component library for creating Enterprise level products.

Example

import { Button } from 'antd';
 
const App = () => <Button>Default Button</Button>;

Pros

  • Minimalistic design
  • Supports other JS frameworks
  • Supports TypeScript

Cons

  • Most of the templates are in Chinese

Chakra UI

Chakra UI

Chakra UI is a mix of Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap. Which we can use to create beautiful sites.

Example

import { Button } from '@chakra-ui/react';
 
function Home() {
	return <Button colorScheme="blue">Button</Button>;
}

Pros

  • Elegant UI
  • Lots of Components
  • Easy to use
  • Highly Customizable
  • Provides utilities
  • Typescript support

Cons

There are no cons to this library.

NextUI

NextUI

NextUI is a modern-looking UI library that looks very attractive. It is inspired by Material Design and other popular UI libraries.

Example

import { Button } from '@nextui-org/react';
 
function Home() {
	return <Button>Default</Button>;
}

Pros

  • Modern-looking UI
  • Provides utilities
  • Typescript support

Cons

  • Still a work in progress
  • Small community
  • Components look laggy because they have lots of animations

Blueprint

Blueprint

Blueprint is a UI library for creating sketchy and simple websites.

Example

import { Button } from '@blueprintjs/core';
 
function Home() {
	return <Button>Default</Button>;
}

Pros

  • Nice looking UI
  • Provides utilities
  • Typescript support

Cons

  • Documentation is confusing

Conclusion

Now that you have a good understanding of the best UI libraries, here is what you choose.

  • React-Bootstrap - You like bootstrap and you don’t mind the design being not unique.
  • MUI - You like Material Design and creating large websites.
  • Ant Design - You are a minimalist and you like to create simple websites.
  • Chakra UI - You like Boostrap’s design and Tailwind’s power.
  • NextUI - You like web3 and dark websites.
  • Blueprint - You like sketchy websites.

Something wrong or just found a typo? Edit this page on GitHub and make a PR!

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