Material UI vs. Fomantic-UI
By SW Habitation
Material UI
Fomantic-UI
You know how building a website can feel like a lot, especially when you’re trying to style every little thing yourself? Buttons, forms, layouts… it adds up fast. That’s where UI frameworks really save the day. They give you a bunch of premade design elements that you can just drop in and go. It’s like having a design starter pack that helps your site look clean and professional, without spending forever tweaking the details.
What is Material UI ?
Material UI also known as MUI is a popular ui framework that helps developers build modern, good-looking websites. MUI provides a collection of ready-made components like buttons, forms, menus, and cards that follow Google’s Material Design which is a clean and consistent visual style.
As it built on React, MUI saves you time by letting you use these predesigned parts instead of starting everything from scratch.
Whether you're building a small personal project or a large web application, MUI helps make your site look professional and work well on both computers and mobile devices.
Key Features of Material UI
- Rich Component Set: Buttons, dialogs, data grids, pickers, more.
- Accessibility: Prefers WCAG best practices and ARIA attributes.
- Material Theming: Customizable palettes, typography, and spacing.
- CSS-in-JS: Dynamic styling via Emotion or styled-components.
- Dark Mode Support: Easy theme toggling built-in.
- Tree Shaking: Supports importing specific components to reduce bundle.
Advantages of Material UI
- Comprehensive Component Library: It covers almost every common UI need: buttons, forms, grids, modals, tables, tooltips, and more. It constantly updated with new components and features.
- Customizable Themes: Lets you easily change colors, typography, spacing, and more. plus you can create your own design system or match an existing brand style as well.
- Enterprise-Ready: It is used in production by large companies and apps as its stable, well-documented, and actively maintained by a strong development team.
- Responsive Design Support: Components that adapt to different screen sizes with built-in responsive utilities.
- Internationalization (i18n) Support: Easily supports multiple languages and right-to-left (RTL) layouts.
- Layout System: Built-in grid and flexbox systems simplify layout creation.
- Seamless Integration with React: It is designed specifically for React, with hooks, states, and props handled smoothly.
Disadvantages of Material UI
- Styling Confusion: Multiple styling options like styled components, emotion, sx prop, makeStyles etc, can be overwhelming or inconsistent.
- Learning Curve: New developers may find MUI's system like themes, styling with sx, custom breakpoints complex at first time.
- Some Features Are Paid: MUI X Pro and Premium components like advanced data grid require a commercial license.
- Look Can Be Generic: Many apps using MUI may look similar if not customized enough. Extra effort is needed to give your app a unique appearance.
- Too Tied to React: MUI only works with React. Not usable in plain HTML/JS or other frameworks like Vue or Angular.
- Bundle Size: It can increase the size of your app bundle if not optimized specially with MUI X.
What is Fomantic-UI?
Fomantic-UI is a modern version of the popular Semantic UI, made and improved by the community. It is a tool for building websites that are responsive, easy to style, and user-friendly, fast.
It focuses on semantic class names that read like natural language, making code more intuitive and easier to understand. Since it’s a fork, it has continued where Semantic UI left off, with new features, updates, and active maintenance by the community.
Key Features of Fomantic-UI
- Human-Friendly Classes: Semantic class names like ui button, ui card, ui grid.
- Rich Components: Buttons, forms, modals, dropdowns, cards, tabs, and more.
- JavaScript Behaviors: Built-in behaviors for modals, accordions, dropdowns, sliders, etc.
- Responsive Grid: Powerful 16-column responsive grid system.
- Theming System: Fully themable with LESS variables and customization options.
- Extensible: Modular build — include only what you need.
- Community-Powered: Active development and updates compared to the abandoned Semantic UI.
Advantages of Fomantic-UI
- Full-Featured: Includes both CSS components and JavaScript behaviors.
- Rich UI Library: Over 50 components for quick UI building.
- Readable Code: Natural-language style class names make HTML easier to read.
- All-in-One Framework: No need to rely on external JS for basic UI behaviors.
- Strong Theming Support: Easily customizable with LESS variables.
- Community Driven: Regularly updated and maintained by the community.
Disadvantages of Fomantic-UI
- Requires jQuery: JavaScript behaviors still depend on jQuery.
- Learning Curve: Semantic-style class names may feel unusual for new developers.
- LESS Dependency: Built on LESS, which is less popular today compared to Sass or CSS-in-JS.
- Not as Popular: Smaller ecosystem compared to Bootstrap or Tailwind CSS.
- Heavy File Size: Larger compared to lightweight frameworks like Bulma or Milligram.
Comparison Between Material UI vs Fomantic-UI
Use Cases of Material UI
- React dashboards and admin panels
- Feature-rich web apps with consistent UI
- Teams needing robust component libraries with theming
Use Cases of Fomantic-UI
- Teams migrating from Semantic UI: Seamless replacement with updates and support.
- Enterprise Web Apps: Strong theming and responsive layout capabilities.
- Prototypes: Quickly build UI with semantic classes.
- Admin Dashboards: Ready-to-use components and JS behaviors.
- Apps Requiring Complex UI: Dropdowns, modals, tabs, accordions built in.
Other Resources
Conclusion
UI frameworks make building a polished website way easier. Whether you're working on something simple or a big project, they help you get things looking just right without having to stress over every little design decision. With ready-to-use components, responsive layouts, and modern styles, you can build faster and smarter.
So, pick one that works for you, and start creating a site that looks amazing from the get-go.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between MUI Core and MUI X?
MUI Core: Free, open-source components like button, textField, grid.
MUI X: Advanced components like data-grid Pro, date Picker some are paid.
Is Material UI mobile-friendly?
Yes, it is responsive by default and works well with mobile devices. You can use the Grid, Box, and responsive sx props to adjust layouts for different screen sizes.
Can I use Material UI with TypeScript?
Yes. MUI has full TypeScript support. Install types if necessary,
npm install --save-dev @types/react
What is the difference between Semantic UI and Fomantic-UI?
Fomantic-UI is a community-driven fork of Semantic UI. While Semantic UI is no longer actively maintained, Fomantic continues development with updates and improvements.
Does Fomantic-UI need JavaScript?
Yes, for interactive components like modals, accordions, dropdowns, and tabs. It relies on jQuery for JavaScript behaviors.
Is Fomantic-UI beginner-friendly?
Yes, especially for developers who like readable class names for example, ui button. But it may take some time to adjust if you’re coming from Bootstrap or Tailwind.
Can I use Fomantic-UI with React or Vue?
Yes, but since it depends on jQuery, you may need extra configuration or wrappers like Semantic UI React though it’s not fully tied to Fomantic updates.
Is Fomantic-UI still maintained?
Yes, the community is actively maintaining it with frequent updates and bug fixes, unlike the original Semantic UI.