With so many frameworks out there in the developing community, it is quite obvious that there would be confusion on which framework to choose.
Today, we will list the 5 Best CSS frameworks for Web Designers 2015. These frameworks are used by thousands of front-end engineers to make the web a better world.
The CSS frameworks are also popular among back-end developers as it enables them to create useful front-end design without entering too deep into design elements. Also, the notion of full stack developer is quite popular in the current industry and back-end developers should also learn basic CSS frameworks and how the work.
With the current projects becoming complex, it is quite evident that a proper understanding of the available popular frameworks is necessary. With the correct knowledge, it becomes easier for the project manager or the developer to choose the right framework for their project.
Without wasting much time, let’s start the list of 5 Best CSS Frameworks For Modern Web Designers and Developers.
5 Best CSS Frameworks For Modern Web Designers and Developers
1. BootStrap
If you ask any experienced front-end engineer, chances are that the first framework that come to their mind is BootStrap. A BootStrap is one of the leading front-end frameworks that was developed by twitter for their internal project. With its release in 2011, it soon becomes the defacto of the web developers design.
The framework uses 12 grid layout with high emphasis on reusability and modularity.
The core principle of the framework is the responsive Web design and mobile first and with Google taking responsive web design as a crucial factor in ranking websites, it is quite evident that developers are looking to build websites that are responsive and are on track with the Google factors.
Main Features of Bootstrap
- Complete responsive design compatible and mobile first framework.
- Run on reusability and modularity in mind.
- 12 Grid Layout Supported.
- Supports all modern browsers including IE8+.
- Extensive Documentation and Strong Online Community.
2. Foundation
With Bootstrap out of the way, the next name that you can hear from the experienced web designers is the Foundation framework. It is backed by one ZURB and is quite extensively used by the big companies such as Yahoo, Google, and others.
With the same release date of Bootstrap, it quickly gained the attention of the designers and started ranking on the online world.
Main Features of Foundation
- LightWeight and Support Sass
- Completely Responsive and Modular
- Extensive documentation and great resources to learn
- Extremely good customization(manual)
- Mobile first framework and comes with Foundation Icon Fonts.
3. Semantic
Semantic is just 2 years old and have shown great promise for the online web designers world. Similar to Bootstrap and Foundation, it supports responsive design and is mobile first.
Semantic supports Less Preprocessor and is basically a UI component framework that resembles the natural language principles, which takes semantic rules into play
With great documentation and old browser support, this framework is here to stay.
Main Features of Semantic
- Mobile First and responsive design support.
- Great documentation. Customization only through manual editing.
- Supports older browser.
- Works similar to natural languages and can be learned quickly.
- Supports Font Awesome for great font usage.
4. Pure
Another CSS framework for creating visually appealing online projects. With so much emphasis on the minimalism design, Yahoo developed Pure and comes in only 18 KB file size.
Like the other frameworks discussed here, it comes with responsive design support. It is modular and supports older browsers.
On the department of customization, it does support basic GUI Skin builder, which the other frameworks lack.
Main Features of Pure
- Offers Basic GUI Skin Builder
- Supported by Yahoo!
- Offers good documentation.
- Supports Old browsers including IE7.
- Support Responsive Design and modular approach
5. Toggles and Switches
Toggles and Switches is a CSS framework that has been born from the likes of Gumby, a popular framework from Digital Surgeons.
The main aim of Toggles and Switches is to get rid of boilerplate UI code and make CSS coding a declarative one. Every animation and CSS states are controlled using declarative syntax.
All this power and interactivity without writing a single piece of JavaScript code. The Toggles and Switches framework do look amazing and can hold value for the designers in the future.
Main Features of Toggles and Switches
- Comes directly from the Gumby Framework and is the work of Digital Surgeons.
- Support declarative CSS to handle states and animation.
- Can be done without typing a single line of JavaScript.
- No use of Boilerplate code.
- Declarative Syntax
Which Framework To Choose?
Choosing the best CSS framework means less work, high productivity, and great satisfaction. But the biggest question is which framework to choose for your next project? There are many questions that need to be answered before choosing the next framework for your project. Some of them are discussed below.
1. Community Presence around the Framework. Choosing a best CSS framework that have a strong community means better support offline and online. This also means that you will get updates regularly and will seldom fall into a bug that has not been encountered by someone else.
2. Regular Updates to Reflect New Web development techniques. I still remember when the ghost buttons got famous out of nowhere. And, yes it has been incorporated in some frameworks and that’s great for any developer — the ability to use the next generation web technique as fast as possible can only improve their work and its longevity.
3. How Old is the Framework? This might sound cliche. But older framework tends to do better. They have a fewer bugs and better online support and everything seems to fall in place.
4. Great Documentation is a win-win situation. Any framework that needs to penetrate the market requires excellent documentation. The frameworks that are discussed above — all comes with great documentation and you will seldom get stuck solving a problem.
Wrap Up
Today, we listed the 5 Best CSS frameworks for web developers and designers. You can choose anyone of them according to your requirement. In some cases, programmers can choose to use one specific functionality of the framework and then choose the other framework for something else. Mixing things can make your solve some hard problems during project. So choose wisely.
Do you think, that I missed a crucial framework? Then comment below and let us know. Also, share the article to show some love. Cheers!
