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alakkadshaw
alakkadshaw

Posted on • Originally published at metered.ca

Top React UI libraries for 2024

  1. React Bootstrap
  2. Core UI
  3. Prime React
  4. Tailwind UI
  5. Grommet
  6. OnsenUI
  7. MUI
  8. Chakra UI
  9. Ant Design
  10. Semantic UI
  11. Blueprint UI
  12. Visx
  13. Fluent UI
  14. Evergreen
  15. Mantine
  16. Next UI

In this article we are going to learn about the options available to react developers for creating web and mobile applications

Here is an overview of all the libraries that we are going to consider in this article

  • Libraries like MUI, Chakra UI and Ant Design have an extensive component set with deep customization options and this makes them good options for developers that are looking to create robust production level applications
  • React Bootstrap and Semantic UI stand out for ease of use and familarity with the developer community. This is especially true for developers that are transitioning projects from traditional front end frameworks
  • Tailwind UI and Next UI are react libraries that empasize modern , aesthetic design language with a focus on minimalizm and customization
  • Blueprint UI, Evergreen and Grommet are libraries designed for enterprise level applications that offer componenets designed for data density, scalability and ability to handle lots of information and functionality
  • OnsenUI and Fluent UI cater to specific niches, Onsen UI is especially designed for mobile applications and Fluent UI is designed with Microsoft design language in mind
  • For specialized needs Visx offers deep integration with d3.js library for visualizations, Prime React offers rich UI components and Core Ui offers efficient admin panel development components
  • Mantine is a promising new library with a balance of modern design and ease of use developer experience.

React Bootstrap

(1,970,797 npm downloads)

React bootstraps library rebuild the bootstrap components for the react ecosystem. It is one of the oldest and most popular react UI libraries out there

With react bootstrap you get familiarity and robustness of the Bootstrap design but with the React component architecture.

It is a good choice if you are looking for Bootstrap Grid system and pre-styled components along with composability and best practices of React

Installation

You can easily install react bootstrap into your react application using npm

  1. open your react directory in the terminal then
  2. run the below command
npm install react-bootstrap bootstrap

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  1. after installing the react bootstrap you will have to install the bootstrap css as well like
import 'bootstrap/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css'
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Key benefits and features

  1. familiarity and ease of use
  2. customization
  3. community and support
  4. Responsiveness

Potential drawbacks

  1. Bootstrap dependency
  2. Design uniqueness
  3. updates and compatibility

Core UI

(76,688 npm downloads)

Core UI is a react UI library designed for building efficient and visually appealing admin interfaces

It has a long list of pre made react UI components, templates and themes which you can use to quickly build admin panels and dashboards

You can easily build admin dashboards for your web and mobile apps with Core UI react library.

Installation

  1. open your react project in your terminal
  2. run the below command
npm install @coreui/react

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  1. Once you have installed the components from Core UI then you can import the components to your react project

Key benefits and features

  1. Rich Component library
  2. Customization and theming
  3. Time efficiency
  4. Responsive design

Potential drawbacks

  1. Specific use-case
  2. learning curve
  3. Dependency and Bloat

Prime React

Prime React

(49,515 npm installs)

Prime React is a react UI library that has a big collection of UI components. It is designed with developers in mind who need a wide variety of high quality, customizable components.

Prime react has a complete range of components from buttons and inputs to advanced components like data tables, charts and complex menus.

The library is known for professional look and feel, extensive component options and ease of integration

installation

  1. Open your react project dorectory in your terminal
  2. Run the below command to install the react library
npm install --primereact --save
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  1. Primereact also requires a theme and PrimeIcons, which can be installed like
npm install primeicons --save
npm install primeflex --save
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  1. After installing the icons and the theme you can import the components from PrimeReact into your React components.

Key Benefits and Features

  1. extensive component library
  2. Theming and customization
  3. Accessibility and Responsiveness
  4. Community and Support

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Complexity
  2. Performance
  3. Integration

If you are looking for a wide array of feature rich react components for building sophisticated and good looking UI, then PrimeReact is a good choice to consider

Tailwind UI

Tailwind UI

Tailwind UI is a collection of professionally designed, pre-built react components that were created by the tailwind team. Tailwind is available for other libraries as well along with react

Tailwind UI is a paid UI libraries unlike others in the series.

Installation

Installing the tailwind UI into a react project involves setting up Tailwind CSS first

  1. Go to your project directory and open your react project
  2. install tailwind css in your project like
npm install tailwindcss postcss autoprefixer
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  1. and create a tailwind config file like
npx tailwindcss init

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  1. configure your tailwind.config.js and postcss.config.js using the tailwind css documentation

  2. Import the tailwind css like

@import "tailwindcss/base";
@import "tailwindcss/components";
@import "tailwindcss/utilities";
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  1. You will need to purchase the Tailwind UI library to use it

Key Benefits and Features

  1. Highly customizable
  2. Community and Resources
  3. Responsive design

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Learning Curve
  2. Verbose Class names
  3. Custom Components

Grommet

Grommet

(7000 npm installs)

Grommet is a react framework that offers a wide variety of components and tools for building responsive and good looking web applications.

Grommet stands out for its focus on mobile first design, ease of use, and its commitment to accessiability standards

It has all sorts of components from buttons to more complex tools like calendar and Carusal.

It is ideal for devs looking for responsive design and accessibility in their projects and like simple designs and customization from their react library

Installation

  1. Open the react project in your terminal
  2. and run the below command to install the library
npm install grommet grommet-icons
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  1. After installation you can start using the Grommet components in your project by importing them directly.

Key benefits and features

  1. Accessibility and mobile first design
  2. Rich component library
  3. Customization and theming
  4. Developer experience

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Learning Curve
  2. Overhead for small projects
  3. Design Uniqueness

Onsen UI

Onsen UI

(21,476 npm installs)

Onsen UI is a versatile mobile app development framework, it is designed for HTML, CSS and JavaScript with special support for react

It is a good choice for react developers who are looking to create mobile apps that feels native on iOS and Android. Onsen UI provide a large set of react components that are good for mobile environments, provide a native looking platform for both iOS and Android

The Onsen UI provides emphasis on performance and smooth UI plus ease of use

It is a good choice to build cross platform mobile apps

Installation

Here is how you can easily install Onsen UI in your react project

  1. Open your react project in your terminal
  2. type the below command to install
npm install onsenui react-onsenui --save
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  1. Then you have to import the onsenui/css/onsenui.css and onsenui/css/onsen-css-components.css for styling the components
import 'onsenui/css/onsenui.css';
import 'onsenui/css/onsen-css-components.css';
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  1. Then you can import the Onsen UI components into your. react project

Key Benefits and Features

  1. Mobile Native look and feel
  2. Cross Platform compatibility
  3. Comprehensive Component library
  4. Ease of use

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Mobile Focused
  2. Styling and Customization
  3. Learning Curve

MUI

MUI

(1,087,080 npm installs)

MUI is one of the most popular react libraries out there, it is known for its implementation of Google's Material design philosophy.

MUI is a comporehensive, well documentation and customizable library with a large community and resources available.

You can build visually apealling and functional web applications with MUI.

It offers a wide range of react components in line with consistent and user friendly interface.

Installation

  1. Open your project in the terminal
  2. Then install the MUI using the following command
npm install @mui/material @emotion/react @emotion/styled
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  1. After installation you can import the MUI components in your react application like
import Button from '@mui/material/Button';
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Here we have imported the button component

Key Benefits and Features

  1. Rich component library
  2. Customization
  3. Material Design
  4. Community

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Learning curve
  2. Performance considerations
  3. Visual Similarity

Image description

Chakra UI

(210,116 npm installs)

Chakra UI is a modern react UI library that is simple, modular and has accessibility features

It is designed with easy to use and composable components that can be used to easily build responsive and visually good looking apps

This library is focused on developers that need simplicity with ease of use and customization, enabling them to create custom user interfaces with ease

Installation

You can easily integrate Chakra UI like

  1. Open your react project in your terminal
  2. then type the following command to install the library
npm install @chakra-ui/react @emotion/react @emotion/styled framer-motion
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  1. After installing the Chakra UI you can then easily import the react components like
import { Button } from '@chakra-ui/react';

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Key Benefits and Features

  1. Ease of use:
  2. Customization and theming
  3. Accessibility
  4. Modularity

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Newer Framework
  2. Learning Curve for theming
  3. Design Flexibility

Image description

Ant Design

(663,911 npm installs)

Ant design is a React UI library known for good design and good quality of components. It is sofisticated and professional looking and perticularly well suited for businesses and admin interfaces.

The library offers well documented and easy to integrate components making it a preffered choice for developers looking for a rock solid and ready to use UI that aligns well with modern design principles

Installation

  1. To install ant design open the project root folder in your terminal type the below command
npm instell antd
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  1. After you have installed the Ant Design library you can easily import the components in your project like
import { Button } from 'antd';
import 'antd/dist/antd.css'; // or 'antd/dist/antd.less'
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Key Benefits and Features

  1. Rich set of Components
  2. Consistent design language
  3. Customizable Themes
  4. Internationalization

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Design Specificity
  2. Bundle Size
  3. Complex and difficult to customize

Semantic UI

Semantic UI

(118,220 npm installs)

Semantic UI is a development framework, Semantic UI React offers a sleek component library that integrates seamlessly with React's component based arhitecture.

It targets developers that prefer clean, readable code and need a UI that aligns well with natural language principles.

It focuses on easy of use and developer friendly UI code

Installation

  1. Open your project's root directory in your terminal
  2. Type the below command to install the Semantic UI library
npm install semantic-ui-react semantic-ui-css
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  1. You also have to import the Semantic UI CSS file in your project

Key Benefits and Features

  1. Intuitive code
  2. Comprehensive component library
  3. Customization and theming
  4. Responsive Design

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Performance
  2. Development Pace
  3. Difficult to customize

Blueprint UI

Blueprint UI

Blueprint UI is a react ui library that specializes in building complex and data-dense interfaces and it is well suited for desktop interfaces

Blueprint UI has components that are well suited for building rich user interfaces for data intensive applications like analytics dashboards, information management tools and other tools made for businesses

It has specialized UI components that can handle complex use-cases such as tables with large scale interactivity, inline editing and ability to handle large data sets

Installation

  1. Open your project's root directory in your terminal
  2. Type the below command to install Blueprint UI
npm install @blueprintjs/core
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  1. Once installed you can easily import the components in your project like
import { Button } from "@blueprintjs/core";
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Key Benefits and Features

  1. Specialized and complex UI
  2. Interactivity and easy customizability
  3. Modular and scalable design
  4. Good Looking

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Specific Use case focus
  2. Learning Curve
  3. Bundle Size

Visx

Visx

Visx is a collection of expressive and low level visualization primitives for react.

It has both D3.js and React components. It is useful for creating custom charts, graphs, and visualizations for web and mobile apps. The library is highly customizable and makes the task of creating visualization easy and simple

Installation

  1. You can easily install the library, open the project root folder in your terminal then run the following command
npm install @visx/visx
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  1. Once you have installed the library you can easily import the components in your project

Key benefits and features

  1. Low level building blocks
  2. Ability to use d3.js
  3. Modular package structure

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Learning Curve
  2. Requires customization
  3. Only for specialized use cases

Fluent UI

Fluent UI

(63,838 npm install)

Fluent UI is a react UI library developed by Microsoft, for creating web and mobile apps in Microsoft design language.

If you are building web and mobile apps for Microsoft ecosystem, such as Office 365 or apps that would run on the Windows desktop environment then Fluent UI is for you

Fluent UI is designed with Microsoft design philosophy but it is free and available to anyone.

It is a comprehensive component library with almost all the components that you might need for your project

If you like Microsoft design language for your project then you can consider it as an UI option

Installation

It is quite easy to integrate Fluent UI in your react project

  1. Open the project's root folder in your terminal
  2. Type the below command to install the Fluent UI
npm install @fluentui/react
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  1. After you have installed the Fluent UI you can import the components in your project like
import { PrimaryButton } from '@fluentui/react';
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Key benefits and features

  1. Consistent with Microsoft design language
  2. Comprehensive component library
  3. Integration with Microsoft Tools
  4. Accessibility

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Adhering to one specific design philosophy
  2. Size and Customizability
  3. Learning Curve

Evergreen

Evergreen UI

( 3,860 npm installs)

Evergreen is a react UI library created by Segment. This is a UI library designed for creating enterprise web applications.

It has a sleek set of components that are useful for creating modern, flexible and good looking web applications

Evergreen has a pragmatic design language, ensuring that the react components are both functional and elegant

This library is for you if you need a balance of aesthetic appeal, usability and customizability in your project

Evergreen provides a professional and sophisticated look.

Installation

You can easily install evergreen in your react project like

  1. Open your project root folder in your terminal
  2. Type the below command
npm install evergreen-ui
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  1. Once you have installed the evergreen ui, then you can import components in your project like
import {Button} from 'evergreen-ui'
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Key benefits and features

  1. Professionally designed components
  2. Ease of use
  3. Customization
  4. Scalability

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Small Component Set
  2. Design Specificity
  3. Community and resources

It is a good mix of enterprise level web app components, ease of use and customizability

Mantine

Mantine

It is a relatively new React UI library that has a focus on developer experience and ease of use

It has a modern set of components and hooks with an importance given to customization and theming

It is a potential consideration for developers looking to build dynamic and visually appealing apps. It is notable for incorporating accessibility standards inspite of being a new library

Installation

  1. Open your project's root directory in the terminal
  2. type the below command to install the Mantine library
npm install @mantine/core @mantine/hooks
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  1. After installation you can easily import the components like
import { Button } from '@mantine/core';
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Key benefits and features

  1. Rich component library
  2. Customization and theming
  3. Hooks and utilities
  4. Responsable and Accessible
  5. New look and feel

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Newer library
  2. Growing ecosystem
  3. lack of community and adoption

It is a great library for building proof of concept or MVP for demonstrating a project's potential with good looking and fresh UI

Next UI

Next UI

Next UI is another modern UI library that focuses on delivering beautiful, minimalistic components that have a modern design language

It is visually stunning and highly interactive and the library emphsyses ease of use components that are both stylish and functional

If you value both asthetic design and functionality then this UI library is for you

It provides a great UI and UX.

Installation

  1. Navigate to your project root directory and open it in your terminal
  2. Then type the below command to install the Next UI library
npm install @nextui-org/react
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  1. Once you have installed the library then you can easily import the components like
import { Button } from '@nextui-org/react';
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Key benefits and features

  1. Modern and elegant design language
  2. Ease of use
  3. Responsiveness
  4. Customization

Potential Drawbacks

  1. Newer library
  2. Limited components available
  3. Minimalistic Design may not be suitable for everyone
  4. Lack of community

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Top comments (2)

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alakkadshaw profile image
alakkadshaw

Thank you for reading. I hope you liked the article

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pa4ozdravkov profile image
Plamen Zdravkov

IF you need a Pro UI library KendoReact is another great one that you can check - telerik.com/kendo-react-ui