Is it time to let go of Bootstrap?
Tags: webdev, css, todayisearched, html
Published: 2021-08-18 18:29:31

Hello again!, After a short break, I am back again with a non-technical post. As Web-Dev's, we use and search all possible ways, to get our job done in the easy way. The most vital visual part of Web-Dev, the **FRONT-END**, is very important to catch the eyes and to give a nice user-friendly experience for the user. To make this job easy, we use CSS frameworks like Bootstrap. So, after these many good years with many technical competitors, is Bootstrap still good to hang on with? 
Let's see about this in today's blog.

So, we'll start with
## What is Bootstrap?
Bootstrap is a CSS framework (Most popular), which uses class based Web-design. The official site of Bootstrap describes itself as,

**“Quickly design and customize responsive mobile-first sites with Bootstrap, the world’s most popular front-end open source toolkit, featuring Sass variables and mixins, responsive grid system, extensive prebuilt components, and powerful JavaScript plugins.”**

And that's completely true, Bootstrap is fast and provide responsive mobile-first build classes to achieve what we Web-Dev's dream of as “RESPONSIVE DESIGN”. It provides an awesome grid system(Which I love) and JavaScript plugins(I hate them using jQuery, we'll get into it).

## Competitors
![CSS frameworks](https://www.tekkiwebsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/Top-CSS-Frameworks.jpg)
<figcaption>Image source: www.tekkiwebsolutions.com</figcaption>
Bootstrap now faces a reasonable competition from similar UI kit based CSS frameworks like **_Foundation_** and **_Bulma_**. Apart from these, It also faces a severe blow from **_TailwindCSS_**. Bootstrap is always criticized for its inflexibility. I would say, it's not inflexibility, but the huge amount of time taken for customizing the defaults provided by Bootstrap(It provides default UI components, because it's a UI Kit based CSS framework). Whereas in frameworks like **_TailwindCSS_**, Utility classes, which provide low-level flexibility, are provided.

## Should Bootstrap worry about competition?
I would say Bootstrap was not made to work like **TailwindCSS**. Bootstrap was made to provide developers of all levels, from beginners to advanced, the ability to quickly spin up a nice looking UI without worrying about responsiveness. Bootstrap's users are mostly beginners, who start their journey of using class based CSS utilities from pure CSS. It also has a good learning curve, so people get it better soon, as frameworks like **TailwindCSS**, **Foundation** and **Bulma** comparatively has a steeper learning curve.

## Should we use Bootstrap still in 2021?
Of course, It is best in class for rapid web-deign, where you want a useful and nice looking site, without any brand colour pallets or pixel specific needs. Even today, more than 19% of websites use **Bootstrap** as their CSS framework. I would say, it's the most probable gateway for learners, who get into class based CSS frameworks from pure CSS and HTML. If you want a quick site for a Boot camp you arrange next week, go for Bootstrap, It's faster to build, gives responsiveness.

## Bootstrap is gearing back again!

![Bootstrap 5](https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.0/assets/brand/bootstrap-social.png)
<figcaption>Image source: getbootstrap.com</figcaption>

As you all know, Bootstrap 5 came with a nice update from 4. It let go of jQuery and switched to Vanilla JavaScript. So, now how good is that!
Bootstrap also managed to bring back the Bootstrap icon support.
It also came up with some low level utility classes for added flexibility. Overall, Bootstrap is not going to be dead, but getting back on track.


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### Attributions:
cover-image : www.drupal.org