The 5 Most Popular Frontend Frameworks of 2014 Compared

Nice work
thanks

Great article thanks. I to have used Skeleton (before the recent update that is) and it was very easy to use as a base framework that works very well, would recommend too.

I love PureCSS. Removes the multitude of features/components that you never use that larger frameworks include. Also encourages unique designs rather than using out of the box styling. Also really great for mobile due to small size. Big ups.

Thanks Ivaylo for the comparison.

What you have to say these 3 frameworks:

  • Jeet
  • Neat (bourbon)
  • Susy?

I know these are more “grid” frameworks compared to those in the article, but what its your opinion about them?

Thanks.

Wonderful analysis with good details – I also posted similar one, covering more frameworks but not in this much detail :smile:

If you look for a jQuery plugin to validate all Bootstrap, Zurb Foundation, PureCSS, Semantic UI and UIKit forms, then https://github.com/nghuuphuoc/bootstrapvalidator is for you!

I’d like to see this as well. But I believe that Foundation made some #a11y additions recently, and i’m sure they announced it.

Foundation 5.4 is here! You can now make the web more accessible for everyone. http://t.co/6iCH2LgEaO pic.twitter.com/YuLnNlB6wc

— ZURB Foundation (@ZURBfoundation) August 22, 2014

And there it is… I had this bookmarked somewhere.

HH!

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I think it would be worth mentioning which of these has dedicated “template builders.” For example, there are a number of 3rd party products that let you work with Bootstrap without actually having to code. In theory the code quality should be on par with hand-coding. The difference being, a builder with a UI can be the gateway to developing live wireframes, prototypes, etc.

Such tools can be helpful for designers, junior devs, etc. who are less familiar with actual coding.

Hi @rtbfreitas

Yes, Jeet, Neat, and Susy are all grid frameworks. Their role is to automate and simplify the building of website layouts, and they have some advantages compared to the grid systems used in Bootstrap, Foundation, etc.

A ready-to-use framework such as Bootstrap offers a ready-to-use grid. This means that you have to build your layout with predefined classes and default grid settings. You can change some settings but the amount of control is minimal. On the other hand a grid framework such as Jeet gives you complete design freedom in terms of more flexible syntax, custom grids, etc. In short, grid frameworks offer more flexibility and more control. Also they provide more advanced features such as asymmetric layouts. But this comes with a price. Such frameworks depend on preprocessors. In our case Stylus and Sass. So in order to use them you need to have the needed preprocessor installed and to know how to use it.

I hope this was helpful to you.

I made a better customizer for Bootstrap, with color picker and some other features:

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Hey @istvanujjmeszaros your customizer looks pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

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Hey @rtbfreitas I’m glad you mentioned those grids, they’re all great. I’m a long time Foundation fan, since the beginning. However, lately I’ve been using Jeet and loving it. I’m a sass guy, and after I stopped using the grid and column class’s in my markup I’m way happier. Jeet has a really simple, yet flexible api, for using mixins in your sass.

I’d say checking out the “issues” of these frameworks on github, and how fast they get addressed, is a very important factor. These huge frameworks have a lot of moving parts. The big guys seem to always introduce new bugs on every update. Still great stuff, but building with a small grid like Jeet can save a lot of headaches.

Used most of these, not for finished sites but for prototyping and quick click throughs for user stories
Most of them are bloated and needs to be striped down

Susy and it’s kind are, for me the best,

I think one of the underrated frameworks is INK. Came across this framework during a research my team did a couple of months back and I’m a big fan of it.

@Owain Thanks for the shoutout on Ink!

Also, note on the Foundation breakdown - we do have a customizer GUI http://foundation.zurb.com/develop/download.html

You can also check out Blackhole, which is a SASS / CSS framework designed with modularity in mind and very semantic. It comes with a simple config file in where you can adjust all the styling stuff for your project, before and during the project.

Momentarily it has around 130kb, without its modules (such as responsive support for all its components, RTL support, CSS3 features, a module which iterates and applies CSS3 properties assigned to your elements, etc.) and has bundled as a module some of the most used UIkit components and add-ons, which are ready to be used and in style with the overall look of the framework.

I also plan to release its second version, which will make the core even smaller, breaking its basic components and helpers into separate modules, ready to be loaded when needed.

It also features a Component Manager, which is an interface showing all the components and add-ons that are available to the framework, in an organized way, and with the HTML code attached to each of the components, to fast grab the specific base code.

Although it has a lot of modules and add-ons, you can use it in its raw state, which I told you is around 130kb, unminifed.

Keep in mind this project is still in his youth though, but I will do my best to improve it over time and all the feedback is very welcomed. Thanks!

Thanks for the info… I have been looking at using Lost by the creator of Jeet, but unfortunately it doesn’t support old Android browsers :frowning: I love how the HTML is not packed with a million class names with these type of grid systems but until old Android use drops, I’m looking for a different framework… Has anyone had a chance to work with gridle?

Its a good comparison between the UI. However I would like to add MaterialUI by Google. Relatively new UI but its going at quite fast pace and since its a mobile first approach it can be used for the large projects which also have their apps.

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