Overview
Nowadays, Various CSS frameworks are released and remove most of the trouble in designing.
Today, we can not visualize coding without our favorite CSS framework, as aiming multiple screen sizes has become a basic requirement.
Are you confused about which framework is more suitable for your requirements, Bootstrap or Tailwind? How do you know if the framework that you are using is convenient? Also, if you’re new to front-end development, which framework should help you pick?
This blog has in-depth information in the front-end development world and compares CSS frameworks Bootstrap and Tailwind. So, read this blog for some quick relief !!
Introduction of frameworks
Bootstrap :
Bootstrap is the most popular framework in the frontend development world. First release of bootstrap came up in August 2011. The truth is it was built in a hackathon by the twitter team.
Nowadays, it became one of the most popular CSS Frameworks and it is currently in 6th position in the top rated project on GitHub.
Tailwind CSS :
Tailwind CSS was released in November 2017 and developed by ADAM Wathan. Tailwind is a new framework but it is growing very speedly.
Installation
Bootstrap:
1: Installing through NPM
npm install bootstrap
2: By download source code :
You can add source files to your projects by downloading from bootstrap website.
Source files include bundles of css and js.
3: Including with CDN
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-Gn5384xqQ1aoWXA+058RXPxPg6fy4IWvTNh0E263XmFcJlSAwiGgFAW/dAiS6JXm" crossorigin="anonymous">
Tailwind:
1: You can add Tailwind with CDN :
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/tailwindcss/2.0.2/tailwind.min.css" integrity="sha512-+WF6UMXHki/uCy0vATJzyA9EmAcohIQuwpNz0qEO+5UeE5ibPejMRdFuARSrl1trs3skqie0rY/gNiolfaef5w==" crossorigin="anonymous" />
2: Installing Tailwind CSS through NPM :
npm install tailwind css
or
yarn add tailwind css.
Then you need to import the tailwind directives into your css as below:
@tailwind base; @tailwind components; @tailwind utilities;
Development
Developing with Bootstrap:
Bootstrap is based on the object oriented css technique which has become the most popular ways of managing stylesheets and classes. Before this we habituated to manage separate js and css files for classes and styles for any component to give different looks.
For example, if you have header portion Navbar on your website with Bootstrap you have that functionality so you don’t have to write any css and js for collapsing in mobile resolution.
Developing with Tailwind CSS:
Tailwind is the first utility framework. Utility first framework means you can remove, add, edit class in tailwind.config.js, so you can customize your own styling in Tailwind.In Tailwind CSS there are classes for almost all kinds of margins, padding, backgrounds, font sizes, font families,positions, shadows and etc..
Preprocessors
Bootstrap:
Bootstrap is also using SASS, the most popular CSS preprocessors.
You don’t know about SASS ? Then let me define, basically SASS gives you permission to use features that do not exist in CSS like imports, variables,mixins, etc…
For Example : If your theme color is blue and If many colors are repeated in your CSS. for that you can use that property as a variable.
After that if you want to change the color then you can simply change the variable’s value for once only and this will automatically change in the whole application.
We are enabled to create our theme in Tailwind. Bootstrap only has SASS and LESS preprocessors among popular CSS frameworks.
Community
Bootstrap:
Bootstrap has been used by front-end developers throughout for more than 9 years and it has a large community of developers, forums, tools and so on.
Tailwind CSS:
In the case of Tailwind CSS there is still much room to grow in terms of its community, however it is growing day by day and the number of tools and websites related to it is also increasing.
Performance and files
Bootstrap:
Bootstrap files size is 308.25kb that include JQuery,Popper.js,Bootstrap Js and the main CSS file.
Tailwind CSS:
Tailwind CSS files size is only 27kb. If you don’t need a larger set of components and functionality like bootstrap have then Tailwind is a better choice for lightweight projects.
Base set of components
Bootstrap:
In this case , Bootstrap has a wide components set like cards, accordions , modal popup , tabs etc..and Grid is the initial component of bootstrap, just because of grid bootstrap is the first choice of developers.
Tailwind:
Tailwind CSS have only basic handful components,but Tailwind Css have more utility classes then Bootstrap, by using those classes you can create any type of component you want.
Customization
Tailwind:
It is hard to maintain sites and apps when it get larger therefore, something like Tailwind CSS is more useful because of its large amount of utility classes.and it is very easy to create your own theme, your own config file:
You can also create a config file to customise your installation using:
npx tailwindcss init
which creates the following basic config:
module.exports = {
theme: {},
variants: {},
plugins: [],
}
You can style your own colors, sizes,fonts,padding, margin, so it’s highly recommend CSS framework for Customize theme
Difference of components
| Components | Tailwind | Bootstrap |
|---|---|---|
| Breakpoints : | Small devices(landscape phones ) @media (min-width: 640px) { ... } Medium devices (tablets, 768px and up) @media (min-width: 768px) { ... } Large devices (desktops, 1024px and up) @media (min-width: 1024px) { ... } Large devices (desktops, 1280px and up) @media (min-width: 1280px) { ... } Extra Large devices (desktops, 1536px and up) @media (min-width: 1536px) { ... } | Small devices (landscape phones, 576px and up) @media (min-width: 576px) {..} Medium devices (tablets, 768px and up) @media (min-width: 768px) {..} Large devices (desktops, 992px and up) @media (min-width: 992px) {..} Extra large devices (large desktops, 1200px and up) @media (min-width: 1200px) {..} |
| Box sizing property | Already applied in all the element by default . | You can apply when you need |
| Object Position: | There is object position property in tailwind for controlling how a replaced element’s content is positioned with its container. | Bootstrap have no classes for this property |
| Dark mode | Tailwind provide dark mode feature by including dark variant | Dark mode feature not provided by bootstrap |
| RTL : | In tailwind there is no RTL functionality. | Bootstrap provided bootstrap.rtl.css. By using this you can add “Right to left” feature for arebic websites. |
Conclusion
Considering all the points, Finally the conclusion is whether to choose Tailwind CSS or Bootstrap, it is based on your personal requirements and preferences for writing styles and classes.
At the end I personally give you a suggestion to try out Tailwind CSS and see if the first utility framework is a preferred way for your work.
Which framework do you use regularly for your projects? and what are your requirements ? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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