Top metro-bootstrap Alternatives for Modern Web Development
While metro-bootstrap offered a unique approach to web design by integrating a Metro style with Twitter's Bootstrap, the landscape of front-end development frameworks has evolved significantly. Developers today seek more robust, flexible, and actively maintained alternatives to streamline their workflow and build cutting-edge web applications. If you're looking to move beyond metro-bootstrap, this guide explores some of the best alternatives available that offer powerful features, active communities, and modern design principles.
Top metro-bootstrap Alternatives
Whether you prioritize responsive design, specific UI components, or a lightweight footprint, there's an alternative to metro-bootstrap that will fit your project's needs. Let's dive into some of the top contenders.
Bootstrap
Bootstrap is an open-source collection of tools for creating browser sites and applications, and arguably the most widely recognized successor to the concept behind metro-bootstrap. It provides HTML and CSS-based design templates for typography, forms, buttons, navigation, and other interface components, as well as optional JavaScript extensions. Being Free, Open Source, and Self-Hosted, it supports HTML5 Boilerplate and JavaScript. Its key features include responsive design, active development, clean design, extensive documentation, premade templates, and a responsive layout, making it a comprehensive and powerful alternative.
Materialize
Materialize is a modern responsive CSS framework based on Material Design by Google. As a Free and Open Source Web platform, it offers a distinct aesthetic and component library compared to metro-bootstrap, focusing on Google's widely adopted Material Design principles. Its features include a strong emphasis on Material Design, serving as a robust CSS framework, mobile framework, responsive design capabilities, and is ideal for web development, offering a fresh visual alternative.
Purecss
Purecss is a set of small, responsive CSS modules that you can use in every web project. It's a Free, Open Source, and Web-based solution that stands out for its minimalist approach, making it a great lightweight alternative to metro-bootstrap for projects where performance and a small footprint are critical. While no specific features are listed beyond its core offering, its modularity allows developers to pick and choose only what they need.
Skeleton
Skeleton is a small collection of CSS & JS files that can help you rapidly develop sites that look beautiful at any size. As a Free, Open Source, and Web-based platform, Skeleton is an excellent choice for those seeking a highly responsive and lightweight framework. Similar to Purecss, it provides a foundational CSS framework and excellent responsive design capabilities without the bloat, offering a simpler starting point than metro-bootstrap.
Element UI
Element UI is a Vue 2.0 based component library for developers, designers, and product managers. It's a Free, Open Source, Web, and Self-Hosted solution leveraging CSS, JavaScript, and Vue.js. If your project is built on Vue.js, Element UI offers a comprehensive set of UI components and a robust CSS framework, providing a more modern and component-driven approach compared to the traditional structure of metro-bootstrap.
Spectre.css
Spectre.css is a lightweight, responsive, and modern CSS framework for faster and extensible development. As a Free, Open Source, Web, and Self-Hosted solution, it provides a clean and modern design with essential components, making it a strong contender for those seeking a lean yet capable CSS framework with responsive design features for web development, moving beyond the specific aesthetic of metro-bootstrap.
Metro UI CSS
Metro UI CSS is a set of styles to create a site with an interface similar to Windows 8. While metro-bootstrap aimed for a similar Metro style, Metro UI CSS is specifically designed to replicate the Windows 8 interface. It's a Free, Open Source, and Web-based solution that utilizes LESS and jQuery, offering responsive design and web development features. For projects specifically targeting that Windows 8 aesthetic, this is a direct and dedicated alternative.
Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is different from frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, or Bulma in that it's not a UI kit. It doesn't have a default theme, and there are no built-in components. This Free, Open Source, and Self-Hosted CSS framework emphasizes utility-first design, providing low-level utility classes that can be composed to build custom designs. For developers seeking unparalleled flexibility and a highly customizable CSS framework for web development, Tailwind CSS offers a modern, highly performant approach that diverges significantly from metro-bootstrap's pre-styled components.
Material Design Lite
Material Design Lite (MDL) is Google's front-end web framework for building sites to the Material Design specification. As a Free, Open Source, Web, and GitHub-hosted solution, it provides a comprehensive set of Material Design components and a CSS framework with responsive design capabilities. For those who appreciate the aesthetic of Material Design, MDL offers a robust, officially supported alternative to the Metro style of metro-bootstrap.
GroundworkCSS
GroundworkCSS is a 100% free and open-source responsive HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript Framework. As a Free, Open Source, Web, and Self-Hosted platform, it provides a solid foundation for building responsive websites. It functions as a versatile CSS framework, making it a good general-purpose alternative to metro-bootstrap for developers seeking a robust and flexible starting point.
The world of front-end development is rich with powerful and flexible frameworks that offer compelling alternatives to metro-bootstrap. Whether you need a comprehensive solution like Bootstrap, a specific aesthetic like Materialize, or a highly customizable option like Tailwind CSS, exploring these alternatives will help you find the perfect fit for your next web project, enabling modern design and efficient development.