Ask HN: What are alternatives to Bootstrap?

That's because "everyone" uses the same basic Bootstrap themes. If you use Bootstrap for layout and responsive UI you'll be fine, it is just when you are the nth site to use the default theme with the same damn default navigation that it gets a little cringe.

So in my opinion you're asking the wrong question, the right question is: "How do I make my Bootstrap site not FEEL like every single other Bootstrap site on the internet?"

If you're willing to pay for high quality third party themes it is definitely possible to get something that nobody would call a Bootstrap powered site unless they happened to look at the raw code.

Just don't throw the baby out with the bathwater when all you really want is to look fresh, original, and on-point. It can be done with Bootstrap.

cblock811 · 11 years ago

I'm asking so I can do web analysis on a 55mil homepage corpus we have to see the distribution of styling templates/plugins/tools. I might do a heatmap after and show where these companies are that use the technologies mentioned. Just a for-fun project. I happen to love Bootstrap as a nice V1 for a site's design.

rspeer · 11 years ago

Where do you find these high-quality themes? Every Bootstrap theme I've seen that doesn't look like Bootstrap has been gaudy.

alexgaribay · 11 years ago

I've gotten some from here. https://wrapbootstrap.com

jvvlimme · 11 years ago

You can find loads on http://www.themeforest.com

PureCSS is a minimal framework by Yahoo, i think it looks neat:

http://purecss.io

xpto123 · 11 years ago

Pure CSS is a great choice, it's just a minimum 4k of CSS, no Javascript is needed. It's a 'Bring Your Own Javascript' solution. It provides a css reset for uniform look and feel across browsers, a responsive CSS-only grid, styling for forms, buttons, tables, and it's themable via an online GUI, where a whole theme can be derived from a primary color.

atburrow · 11 years ago

I really like this choice. It seems to give a very lightweight feel to a website. It gives enough minimalism to where if you were to use it, it might not have the "Bootstrap" effect being referred in this discussion.

walterbell · 11 years ago

> "Unlike other frameworks, Pure's design is unopinionated, minimal and flat. We believe that it's much easier to add new CSS rules than to overwrite existing rules."

Sample layouts look great, thanks for posting. Long live "unopinionated" frameworks.

JohnMunsch · 11 years ago

I think Pure is attractive as well, but I wouldn't look to Yahoo to do any more work with it. After they killed a well known project like YUI, I'd be amazed if Pure gets five minutes more work done on it ever.

UnoriginalGuy · 11 years ago

dylanhassinger · 11 years ago

rcarmo · 11 years ago

Well, I use http://ink.sapo.pt (full disclosure: I work there.)

It's pretty complete and is constantly updated -- and besides including a battle-tested JS library of its own, it is evolving toward eschewing some of the "usual" dependencies.

One of the key reasons I use it outside work is that it targets _generic_ sites and can be customized and/or pulled in piecemeal if you take the time to build your own version.

franciscop · 11 years ago

PureCSS. I'm also doing a basic system based on this, but it's still few hours away to be ready. I'll ask for feedback around HN soon though.

cotsog · 11 years ago

Semantic UI: UI is the vocabulary of the web.

http://semantic-ui.com/

illyism · 11 years ago

One of the best in my opinion. I use it for literally everything. It's really versatile in the way that it doesn't force you to use templates.

The new beta (http://beta.semantic-ui.com/) version looks really promising as well, it's made to work with themes but it's a different way of working than the previous version. You get more control in building from less.

sjs382 · 11 years ago

If all bootstrap sites look the same, that's the fault of the developers/designers (or likely the lack of a designer), not bootstrap. Bootstrap should be used as a base, not as a theme.

That said, if you're going to use base bootstrap with no customizations for your project documentation or something like that, more power to you...

Exactly. I'm just curious to find the distribution of styling tools. I want to show how much of the web IS bootstrap so I can tell some designers I know to pound sand when they complain about it all.

MalcolmDiggs · 11 years ago

Foundation by Zurb is probably the biggest head-on competitor.

On the lighter side (codebase wise) getskeleton.com is useful. It handles the responsive stuff without adding much other styling.

Google recently put out Web Starter kit as well: developers.google.com/web/starter-kit/

Terpaholic · 11 years ago

Foundation is extremely useful, and feels professional. It does less of the styling for you (think less default css themes), but overall stands toe to toe with Bootstrap. If you've ever found yourself fighting with Bootstrap (like the resizing height responsive menus), Foundation is a great alternative.

Would definitely recommend Foundation in a heartbeat.

swanson · 11 years ago

I played around with the Bourbon + Neat + Bitters + Refills "stack" recently and I enjoyed it. Definitely not as "drop-in ready" as Bootstrap, but seemed like a good foundation to build on.

http://bourbon.io/http://neat.bourbon.io/http://bitters.bourbon.io/http://refills.bourbon.io/

jparishy · 11 years ago

I second this! I've been doing some FE work lately and they're my goto now.