Material UI vs. Vanilla Framework CSS
By SW Habitation
Material UI
Vanilla Framework CSS
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 Vanilla Framework CSS?
Vanilla Framework is an open-source, lightweight, and extensible CSS framework developed by Canonical (the creators of Ubuntu). It’s designed to provide a consistent and responsive design foundation without unnecessary bloat. Unlike component-heavy frameworks such as Bootstrap or Foundation, Vanilla focuses on clean base styles, responsive layouts, and utility classes that can be extended into full design systems.
It’s particularly popular for enterprise projects and design systems where consistency, accessibility, and scalability matter more than having hundreds of prebuilt UI widgets.
Key Features of Vanilla Framework
- Lightweight & Scalable: Provides only what you need, no bloat.
- Responsive Grid System: Built-in grid system for mobile-first design.
- Accessibility First: Designed with WCAG compliance in mind.
- Design Consistency: Used by Canonical across Ubuntu products.
- Sass Support: Highly customizable via Sass variables and mixins.
- Framework Agnostic: Works with plain HTML, React, Angular, Vue, or any setup.
Advantages of Vanilla CSS
- Good Documentation: Clear guidelines with usage examples.
- Clean and Lightweight: Minimal CSS, loads fast, and avoids bloat.
- Consistent UI/UX: Ideal for creating unified design systems.
- Enterprise-ready: Backed by Canonical, proven in large-scale projects.
- Customizable with Sass: Change themes, colors, and spacing easily.
- Accessibility Focused: WCAG-compliant components for inclusive design.
Disadvantages of Vanilla Framework
- Less Popular in Freelance/Startup Space: Mainly adopted by enterprises like Canonical.
- No Built-in JavaScript: Only CSS, you’ll need custom JS for interactivity.
- Limited Community Support: Not as popular as Bootstrap or Tailwind.
- Learning Curve with Sass: Beginners may find customization tricky.
- Smaller Ecosystem: Fewer templates, themes, and third-party plugins.
Comparison Between Material UI vs Vanilla Framework CSS
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 Vanilla Framework CSS
- Company Websites: clean, responsive base styling.
- Dashboards & Web Apps: modular grid + utility classes.
- Design Systems: consistent Sass variables & mixins.
- Prototypes / MVPs: fast setup with pre-styled elements.
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
Is Vanilla Framework free to use?
Yes, it is open-source and completely free to use under the LGPLv3 license.
Does Vanilla Framework include JavaScript components?
No, it’s a CSS-only framework, so you need to implement JavaScript for dropdowns, modals, etc.
Is Vanilla Framework beginner-friendly?
Yes, for basic usage. But customization requires some knowledge of Sass.
Who uses Vanilla Framework?
It is used by Canonical (Ubuntu) and related projects, but developers can also use it for general web projects.
Should I use Vanilla Framework instead of Bootstrap?
If you want a lightweight, enterprise-ready design system with a focus on accessibility, Vanilla is great. But if you need ready-to-use components with JS support, Bootstrap might be better.