Best React UI Library: 5 Popular Choices

September 7, 2024 (2mo ago)

React is a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It is maintained by Facebook and a community of individual developers and companies. React is used to build single-page applications and user interfaces for web and mobile applications. React is a component-based library, which means that you can create reusable components that can be used to build complex user interfaces. Many developers also use React in conjunction with what they consider the best React UI library to further enhance their development process and create more polished, feature-rich applications.

However, building a polished user interface from scratch can be time-consuming and challenging. That's where UI libraries come in. UI libraries provide pre-built components that you can use to build your user interface quickly and easily. There are many UI libraries available for React, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we will compare some of the best UI libraries for React to help you choose the one that is right for your project.

Benefits and Challenges of Using a UI Library

Benefits:

Challenges:

When to Use a UI Library?

You should consider adopting a React UI library based on your project requirements and your team's expertise. Here are some scenarios where leveraging a React UI library can be particularly beneficial:"

The Contenders: 5 Popular Choices for the Best React UI Library

Material-UI

GitHub: https://github.com/mui/material-ui

Material-UI

Overview

Material-UI, now known as MUI, is a popular react UI library for React based on Google’s Material Design principles. It offers a comprehensive suite of customizable components that developers can easily integrate into their projects.

Key Features

Benefits

Some stats

Installation

You can install Material-UI using npm:

npm install @mui/material @emotion/react @emotion/styled

With styled-components:

Material UI uses Emotion as its default styling engine. If you want to use styled-components instead, run one of the following commands:

npm install @mui/material @mui/styled-engine-sc styled-components

You can follow the styled-components-guide to learn more about using styled-components with Material-UI.

A note from the MUI team: As of late 2021, styled-components is not compatible with server-rendered Material UI projects. This is because babel-plugin-styled-components isn't able to work with the styled() utility inside @mui packages. See this GitHub issue for more details.

We strongly recommend using Emotion for SSR projects.

Example Usage

Here's an example of how you can use a button component from Material-UI in your React application:

import * as React from "react";
import Button from "@mui/material/Button";
 
export default function ButtonUsage() {
  return <Button variant="contained">Hello world!</Button>;
}

Ant Design

GitHub: https://github.com/ant-design/ant-design

Ant Design

Overview

Ant Design is a design system for enterprise-level products. It provides a set of high-quality React components that you can use to build your applications. Ant Design is known for its clean design and extensive documentation.

Key Features

Benefits

Some stats

Installation

You can install Ant Design using npm:

npm install antd

Example Usage

Here's an example of how you can use a button and a date picker component from Ant Design in your React application:

import { Button, DatePicker } from "antd";
 
export default () => (
  <>
    <Button type="primary">PRESS ME</Button>
    <DatePicker placeholder="select date" />
  </>
);

Chakra UI

GitHub: https://github.com/chakra-ui/chakra-ui

Chakra UI

Overview

Chakra UI is a simple, modular, and accessible component library that gives you the building blocks you need to build your React applications. It is designed to be easy to use and customize, making it a popular choice among developers.

Key Features

Benefits

Some stats

Installation

You can install Chakra UI using npm:

npm i @chakra-ui/react @emotion/react @emotion/styled framer-motion

After installing the required packages, you can wrap your application with the ChakraProvider component to enable Chakra UI components:

import * as React from "react";
 
// 1. import `ChakraProvider` component
import { ChakraProvider } from "@chakra-ui/react";
 
function App() {
  // 2. Wrap ChakraProvider at the root of your app
  return (
    <ChakraProvider>
      <TheRestOfYourApplication />
    </ChakraProvider>
  );
}

Example Usage

Here's an example of how you can use a button component from Chakra UI in your React application:

import * as React from "react";
import { Button, ButtonGroup } from "@chakra-ui/react";
 
export const Example = () => (
  <ButtonGroup>
    <Button colorScheme="blue">Save</Button>
    <Button colorScheme="red">Delete</Button>
  </ButtonGroup>
);

Mantine

GitHub: https://github.com/mantinedev/mantine

Mantine

Overview

Mantine is a modern React component library that focuses on providing a wide array of components and hooks, designed with developer experience and flexibility in mind. It's built to create fully accessible web applications with speed and ease. Mantine stands out for its minimalistic design, high customizability, and a strong emphasis on performance and accessibility.

Key Features

Benefits

Some stats

Installation

You can install Mantine using npm:

npm install @mantine/core @mantine/hooks

After installing the required packages, you can wrap your application with the MantineProvider component to enable Mantine components:

import { createTheme, MantineProvider } from '@mantine/core';
 
const theme = createTheme({
  /** Put your mantine theme override here */
});
 
function Demo() {
  return (
    <MantineProvider theme={theme}>
      {/* Your app here */}
    </MantineProvider>
  );
}

Example Usage

Here's an example of how you can use a button component from Mantine, showcasing the simplicity and power of this React UI library:

import { Button } from '@mantine/core';
 
function Demo() {
  return <Button variant="filled">Button</Button>;
}

React Bootstrap

GitHub: https://github.com/react-bootstrap/react-bootstrap

React Bootstrap

Overview

React Bootstrap is a popular library that provides Bootstrap components as React components. It allows you to use the power of Bootstrap's CSS framework in your React applications without the need for jQuery. React Bootstrap is a great choice if you are already familiar with Bootstrap and want to use its components in your React applications.

Key Features

Benefits

Some stats

Installation

You can install React Bootstrap using npm:

npm install react-bootstrap bootstrap

Example Usage

Here's an example of how you can use a button component from React Bootstrap in your React application:

import Button from 'react-bootstrap/Button';
 
function App() {
  return <Button variant="primary">Click me</Button>;
}

Conclusion

Choosing the best React UI library for your project can be a challenging task. Each of the libraries we discussed in this article has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the best choice will depend on your project requirements and team expertise. Here's a quick summary of the libraries we discussed:

Each of these libraries has its own unique features and benefits, so take the time to explore them and choose the best React UI library that fits your project requirements. Happy coding! 🚀

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