What Makes The Best UI Libraries?
When choosing a UI library, consider factors such as your project requirements, the skill set of your team, and the design principles you want to follow. For example, if your project requires some accessibility but lacks resources like budget or team, you can try to use a 3rd party component UI library that will save a lot of your resources. But, before we determine the top 5 best UI libraries for accessibility, it’s essential to establish clear criteria not only from the accessibility aspect. This ensures that our selection process is fair, objective, and accountable, instilling confidence in the validity of our list.
These are the criteria we are using to make this list.
1. It’s A UI Library
By the definition we wrote in the Introduction section, it’s a UI library. Therefore, we won’t include popular libraries like Bootstrap and Tailwindcss because they are more like a CSS framework than a UI Library.
2. Popularity & Community Support
Popularity and community support are significant because the life of a UI library might depend on them. More popular UI libraries have more community support. We will measure this primarily by using Github stars and the number of search results on Google search.
3. Number of Components & Features
This factor indicates the completeness of a UI library. More components & features are better.
4. How Easy to Use and Customize
Each UI library comes with a documentation website and a customization API. We thoroughly reviewed these resources to assess how user-friendly and adaptable the libraries are, particularly for beginners.
5. Accessibility & Performance
Accessibility and Performance make a UI library reliable for production-grade web applications. We measured this by testing the availability of keyboard navigation, WAI-ARIA patterns, and memory consumption of the same components across the tested UI libraries.
6. Developer reviews & experience
A UI library exists to ease developer work. We measured this by our experience using all of them and developer reviews in online forums like Reddit, Stack Overflow, etc.
7. Updates and Development Activity
No one wants to use an outdated library. As of this post, all UI libraries in the list are actively maintained.
5. Spectrum — Adobe’s Design System
Spectrum is Adobe’s design system that includes a set of accessible components for building cohesive and visually appealing interfaces.
You can start spectrum with spectrum-web-components or if you are a react developer you can use react-spectrum
To start working with react-spectrum, you can just run:
npm install @adobe/react-spectrum
After that, you can directly use the react-spectrum component in your project
import {Button, defaultTheme, Provider} from '@adobe/react-spectrum';
function App() {
return (
(
<Provider theme={defaultTheme}>
<Button
variant="accent"
onPress={() => alert('Hey there!')}
>
Hello React Spectrum!
</Button>
</Provider>
)
);
}
When this article was written, react-spectrum was in version 3.36.0, with 50+ components, 12.4k GitHub stars, and more than 300 contributors. It is used by 2.5k projects on GitHub.
The image below shows an example of the implementation of common UI components in Spectrum with any framework javascript/library. You can check the live demo and codes in more detail here.
Accessibility
- Built-in Accessibility Features: React Spectrum is designed with accessibility as a core principle. The components are fully keyboard accessible and include ARIA attributes out of the box. This makes it easier to create accessible applications without needing to implement custom solutions.
- Focus Management: The library handles complex focus management, ensuring that users can navigate through interactive elements smoothly, which is crucial for users relying on screen readers or keyboard navigation.
- High Contrast Modes: Components in React Spectrum are tested to work well in high contrast modes, benefiting users with visual impairments.
- Compliance with Standards: Adobe has made sure that React Spectrum meets WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards, making it a reliable choice for accessibility-focused applications.
Performance
- Optimized for Speed: React Spectrum components are built to be lightweight and performant. They avoid unnecessary re-renders and utilize efficient algorithms for managing state and rendering.
- Lazy Loading Support: React Spectrum supports lazy loading, which helps reduce the initial load time by loading components only when they are needed.
- Scalability: The components are designed to be scalable and maintain performance even as the application grows in complexity.
- Tree-shakable: The library is tree-shakable, meaning only the parts of the library that are used are included in the final bundle, reducing the overall bundle size and improving load times.
Pros
- Comprehensive Accessibility: Built-in, standards-compliant.
- Consistency: Uniform design across devices.
- Theming: Easy customization and dark mode support.
- Performance: Optimized for speed and efficiency.
- Documentation: Well-documented with community support.
Cons
- Learning Curve: Steep for newcomers.
- Bundle Size: Larger compared to minimalist libraries.
- Adobe Dependency: Tied to Adobe’s ecosystem.
- Customization: Challenging without design resources.
- Complexity: Overkill for simple projects.
React Spectrum is a powerful tool for building accessible and performant applications, especially in large-scale or enterprise-level projects. However, it may introduce complexity and a larger bundle size that could be a disadvantage in simpler or performance-sensitive projects. Understanding the specific needs of your project and team is crucial when deciding whether React Spectrum is the right choice.
4. Radix — The Optimized Components
Radix is a lightweight UI library for building accessible and customizable components. It provides a set of primitives that you can use to create your own components while ensuring accessibility.
When this article was written, radix-ui was in version 3.36.0, with 50+ components, 15k GitHub stars, and more than 50+ contributors.
How to use radix-ui simply with:
npm install @radix-ui/themes
After that, you can start importing everything
import { Flex, Text, Button } from '@radix-ui/themes';
export default function MyApp() {
return (
<Flex direction="column" gap="2">
<Text>Hello from Radix Themes :)</Text>
<Button>Let's go</Button>
</Flex>
);
}
The example below shows what Radix UI components look like. You can check the live demo and codes in more detail here
Accessibility
- Unstyled Primitives: Radix UI provides unstyled, low-level components, allowing developers to implement their own styles while ensuring that accessibility features are correctly integrated.
- ARIA and Focus Management: Components include robust ARIA roles and states, as well as built-in focus management to support keyboard navigation and screen readers.
- Customizable Accessibility: Developers have full control over accessibility implementations, which can be tailored to the specific needs or requirements of the application.
- Accessible Patterns: Radix UI includes components that follow best practices for creating accessible UI patterns, such as modal dialogs, tooltips, and dropdown menus.
Performance
- Optimized for Efficiency: Radix UI components are designed to be performant with minimal overhead, ensuring smooth interactions even in complex applications.
- Lightweight Core: The library itself is lightweight, focusing on providing essential functionality without unnecessary bloat.
- Tree-Shaking Support: Radix UI supports tree-shaking, allowing for the removal of unused code, which helps keep the bundle size smaller.
- Efficient Rendering: Components are designed to avoid unnecessary re-renders, contributing to better performance in dynamic or interactive UIs.
Pros
- Unstyled Primitives: Provides low-level, unstyled components for maximum design flexibility.
- Robust ARIA and Focus Management: Includes comprehensive ARIA roles and focus management for accessibility.
- Customizable Accessibility: Allows developers to tailor accessibility features to specific needs.
- Accessible Patterns: Follows best practices for creating accessible UI components like modals and tooltips.
- Optimized for Efficiency: Designed to be performant with minimal overhead.
- Lightweight Core: Focuses on essential functionality, reducing bloat.
- Tree-Shaking Support: Supports tree-shaking to keep bundle size smaller.
- Efficient Rendering: Avoids unnecessary re-renders for smoother performance.
Cons
- Unstyled Components: Requires additional work to style components, which may be time-consuming.
- Complexity for Beginners: May be challenging for developers new to accessible design or low-level component libraries.
- Less Built-in Design Guidance: Provides fewer design conventions, which might require more effort to achieve a cohesive look.
- Limited Higher-Level Components: Lacks higher-level, fully-styled components found in other UI libraries, potentially increasing development time for complex UIs.
Radix UI excels in providing accessible, low-level UI components with a strong emphasis on ARIA roles and focus management. Its unstyled primitives allow for maximum customization while ensuring that accessibility is maintained. Performance-wise, Radix UI is lightweight, supports tree-shaking, and is optimized for efficient rendering, making it suitable for complex and performance-critical applications.
3. Ant Design — An Enterprise-class React UI library
Ant Design, an open-source design system developed by Alibaba Group for enterprise-class web applications, is known for its simplicity, cleanliness, and elegant UI design. This straightforward design approach can help developers and designers feel at ease when working with the system. It is also built on top of React.
Ant Design is on version 5.20.0 with 75+ components, 91.9k GitHub stars, and 2.1k+ contributors when this article is written. It is used by around 626k projects on GitHub.
You can install Ant Design by running this command:
npm install antd --save
Then, you can use the components in your project
import React from 'react';
import { DatePicker } from 'antd';
const App = () => {
return <DatePicker />;
};
export default App;
The image below shows what Ant Design components look like. You can check the live demo and codes in more detail here
Accessibility
- Basic Accessibility Features: Ant Design includes accessible components with basic keyboard navigation and labeling, suitable for standard use cases.
- Inconsistent ARIA Support: Not all components have comprehensive ARIA attributes, potentially requiring additional developer effort to ensure full accessibility.
- Keyboard Navigation: Some components may lack full keyboard navigation support, which can impact users relying on assistive technologies.
- Community-Driven Improvements: The community around Ant Design contributes to accessibility enhancements, but these improvements are not as deeply integrated as in libraries like React Spectrum.
Performance
- Comprehensive Component Library: Ant Design offers a wide range of components, reducing the need for third-party libraries and helping maintain performance in large applications.
- Tree-Shaking Support: Supports tree-shaking to remove unused code, which helps in optimizing bundle size and improving load times.
- Optimized Rendering: Uses optimized rendering techniques to minimize unnecessary re-renders, contributing to good performance in most cases.
- Bundle Size: Due to its comprehensive nature, Ant Design can lead to a larger bundle size, potentially impacting initial load times, especially in complex applications.
Pros
- Basic Accessibility: Includes accessible components with standard features.
- Comprehensive Library: Offers a wide range of components, reducing the need for additional libraries.
- Tree-Shaking: Supports tree-shaking to optimize bundle size.
- Optimized Rendering: Minimizes unnecessary re-renders for better performance.
Cons
- Inconsistent ARIA Support: This may require additional work for full accessibility compliance.
- Keyboard Navigation: Some components lack complete keyboard support.
- Bundle Size: This can lead to larger bundle sizes, impacting performance.
- Accessibility Focus: Not as deeply integrated as in other libraries, needing extra developer effort.
Ant Design is a robust UI library, particularly well-suited for enterprise applications. While it provides basic accessibility features, additional effort may be needed to achieve full accessibility compliance. Performance is generally good, but developers may need to manage bundle size and selectively import components to maintain optimal performance.
2. Chakra UI — Simple, Modular & Accessible UI Library
Chakra UI is a popular React component library that focuses on simplicity and accessibility. It provides a set of composable components with sensible defaults, making it easy to create accessible user interfaces.
When we wrote this article, Chakra UI’s latest stable version was 2.8.2. It has 60+ components, 37k+ GitHub stars, 600+ contributors, and is used by more than 321k projects on GitHub.
How to use chakra-ui simply you can just run:
npm i @chakra-ui/react @emotion/react @emotion/styled framer-motion
You also need to wrap your application root with ChakraProvider
import { ChakraProvider } from '@chakra-ui/react'
function App() {
return (
<ChakraProvider>
<TheRestOfYourApplication />
</ChakraProvider>
)
}
The following image is a screenshot of Chakra UI basic components implementation. You can check the live demo and codes in more detail here.
Accessibility
- Built-in Focus Management: Chakra UI components include built-in focus management to ensure that interactive elements are accessible and navigable via keyboard.
- Color Mode Support: Chakra UI supports light and dark modes, which helps improve accessibility for users with visual impairments by providing options that are easier on the eyes.
- Responsive Design: Components are designed to be responsive, which can enhance accessibility by ensuring that content is accessible across various devices and screen sizes.
- Consistency with ARIA: Chakra UI components come with ARIA attributes that follow best practices, contributing to a consistent accessibility experience across different components.
- Accessibility Testing Tools: Chakra UI provides support for tools and practices that facilitate accessibility testing, helping developers ensure compliance with accessibility standards.
Performance
- Lightweight Design: Chakra UI is designed to be lightweight, reducing the impact on bundle size and improving load times.
- Optimized CSS-in-JS: Utilizes a CSS-in-JS solution that ensures styles are only applied to components in use, minimizing unnecessary style processing and improving performance.
- Efficient Re-rendering: Chakra UI components are optimized to minimize re-renders and maintain performance, even in complex UIs.
- Tree-Shaking Friendly: The library supports tree-shaking, which helps in removing unused code and reducing the final bundle size.
- Server-Side Rendering (SSR) Support: Chakra UI is compatible with server-side rendering, which can improve initial load times and enhance performance for applications using SSR frameworks.
Pros
- Built-in Focus Management: Ensures keyboard accessibility and smooth navigation.
- Color Mode Support: Offers light and dark modes to enhance visual accessibility.
- Responsive Design: Adapts well to various devices and screen sizes.
- Consistency with ARIA: Includes ARIA attributes for a consistent accessibility experience.
- Lightweight Design: Reduces bundle size, improving load times.
- Optimized CSS-in-JS: Minimizes unnecessary style processing for better performance.
- Efficient Re-rendering: Minimizes re-renders for smoother performance in complex UIs.
- Tree-Shaking Friendly: Supports tree-shaking to remove unused code and reduce bundle size.
- SSR Support: Compatible with server-side rendering to improve initial load times.
Cons
- Limited Customization: May require additional effort for advanced or unique customizations.
- Dependency on CSS-in-JS: Some developers might prefer traditional CSS or other styling solutions.
- Learning Curve: New users may need time to understand Chakra UI’s design system and API.
- Performance in Very Large Apps: This may require additional optimization for extremely complex applications.
Chakra UI is known for its strong accessibility features, including built-in focus management and color mode support, which enhance the usability of applications for diverse user needs. Its performance is also well-optimized, with a lightweight design, efficient CSS-in-JS implementation, and support for tree-shaking and SSR. These aspects make Chakra UI a solid choice for building fast, accessible, and responsive applications.
1. Material UI (MUI) — The Most Popular UI Library
Material UI stands as the undisputed champion among UI Libraries built on top of React. It brings Google’s Material Design to life with a comprehensive set of components, making it a reliable choice for your projects.
When this article was written, Material UI was in version 5.16.7, with 65+ components, 93k GitHub stars, and almost 3k contributors. It is used by 1.3 million projects on Github, and the community support is super huge.
You can install Material UI in your project by running:
npm install @mui/material @emotion/react @emotion/styled
After that, you can directly use the Material UI component in your project
import * as React from 'react';
import Button from '@mui/material/Button';
export default function ButtonUsage() {
return <Button variant="contained">Hello world</Button>;
}
The image below shows an example of the implementation of common UI components in Material UI. You can check the live demo and codes in more detail here
Accessibility
- Comprehensive Accessibility Features: Built-in ARIA roles, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility.
- Detailed Documentation: Provides extensive guidelines for implementing and customizing accessibility.
- Focus Management: Designed to handle focus management effectively for smooth navigation.
- Customization Complexity: Extensive customization might require additional work to maintain accessibility standards.
Performance
- Optimized for Speed: Efficient rendering and state management practices are employed.
- Tree-Shaking Support: Supports tree-shaking to reduce bundle size by removing unused code.
- Responsive Design: Components adapt well to different screen sizes and devices.
- Bundle Size: This can contribute to a larger bundle size compared to minimalist libraries, impacting initial load times.
- Performance in Large Applications: Additional optimization may be needed for complex or performance-critical applications.
Pros
- Comprehensive Accessibility: Includes built-in ARIA roles, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support.
- Detailed Documentation: Extensive guidelines for implementing and customizing accessibility.
- Optimized Performance: Efficient rendering and state management practices.
- Tree-Shaking Support: Reduces bundle size by removing unused code.
- Responsive Design: Adapts well to different screen sizes and devices.
Cons
- Customization Complexity: Extensive customization may require extra work to maintain accessibility.
- Bundle Size: This can contribute to a larger bundle size, impacting initial load times.
- Performance in Large Apps: May need additional optimization for complex or performance-critical applications.
Material-UI (MUI) offers robust accessibility features and strong performance optimization, making it a reliable choice for building accessible and responsive applications. It provides a solid foundation with comprehensive documentation and efficient rendering practices. However, customization might require extra effort to ensure full accessibility, and the library’s bundle size can be relatively large, potentially affecting initial load times.
Once again, this is based on our perspective, and our experience so you might have a different opinion let’s discuss it in the comment section 🙂
See you next post!