In the past couple of years, Bootstrap has proved to be a boon for front-end developers. Having several highly useful features, it is loved by developers and designers.
Bootstrap started gaining popularity in 2011, and it has only increased, which resulted in it becoming the backbone of countless sites and web projects.
You might be interested in getting the best of all the features of Bootstrap. So, let’s get going and see all the great things about Bootstrap.
What is Bootstrap?
Bootstrap is a free and open-source CSS framework intended for front-end development. It aims to create a site easily with a significant focus on mobile-friendly and responsive layouts, making it more popular in the web development world. The Bootstrap framework is based on HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. These help designers and developers create buttons, forms, typography elements, and other web interfaces.
Around 26% of websites use Bootstrap, whose JavaScript library we know, which is 21% of all websites.
Bootstrap provides convenience to web developers in building websites faster without worrying about the primary command and functions. Currently, the latest version of Bootstrap is 5.2.3.
Why is Bootstrap used?
Bootstrap has already gained extreme popularity after its launch, and for several remarkable reasons, some features show how game-changing and a real breakthrough this framework is. Some of the great reasons why you should consider using Bootstrap include the following –
Time Saving
Dealing with a project that has various templates can be time-consuming. Besides, even a slight change in design can prompt long stretches of manual editing over numerous website pages, mainly if you are not too careful.
Bootstrap gives you the flexibility to use pre-made themes and templates and a point to initiate web development. It also lets making changes to its code to make your framework suitable for your project’s requirements. Not only that, whatever changes you make during your development process will affect the web pages altered by it.
So, with Bootstrap, you can bid adieu to hours of coding or work right from scratch.
Ease of learning and using
It is easy to handle – the setup process is relatively straightforward and doesn’t take too long. It won’t matter if you are an amateur or a beginner; even a simple knowledge of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML will let you modify the code without any complications.
Open-Source
Bootstrap is an open-source framework, which means you can easily overwrite with the help of CSS and SaaS modification and use it without buying a license.
Responsive and Strong Grid System
Bootstrap’s grid system provides a solid foundation to build your site. Hence, it is one of the main aspects of the framework. Furthermore, a responsive grid system is efficient in adjusting to various devices and sizes. It also uses different CSS classes and helps to customize your site’s layout further.
Customizable
Bootstrap comes with incredible customizability. So, if you are unhappy with your template’s design, you can re-design it by including your preference in its CSS. In addition, it lets you combine it with the existing code so that both may complement each other’s functions. If you want to make a website with an extraordinary or unique look, this option is for you.
A Huge Community
Bootstrap has the massive and full support of its community, which continues to grow as more developers and designers utilize this framework for their projects. This community growth helps you enhance your knowledge because the developers keep the community updated by providing the latest news and tutorials.
As this community is supportive, if you find any obstacle in your development process or have any questions, the developers are there to help.
Impact of Bootstrap on Web Development and Design
Bootstrap has been playing a crucial role in supporting developers and designers to develop mobile-friendly designs. Before Bootstrap was launched, creating a responsive design was quite a complicated process.
Responsiveness and cross-browser compatibility are the major hallmarks of any bootstrap-based developed project, which is also applicable to Bootstrap.
Like the developers, Bootstrap also paves the way for the designers as they get readymade classes.
When it comes to web design, Bootstraps is quite helpful when it comes to creating buttons and forms while also making them responsive. In addition, it is also beneficial for the software built on Vue.js and ReactJS. In simple words, Bootstrap is a handy and important tool for designers that they cannot ignore.
It might look like an oversimplified statement, but Bootstrap has a crucial role to play in adopting responsive web layout as a level grade on the internet. With its grid system and numerous features, Bootstrap has made it easy for every designer to have a front-end design that works perfectly throughout smartphones and tablets and hence scales well for laptop resolutions.
One negative side of Bootstrap overuse is that it has adversely affected web development and design because – “all bootstrap sites look identical” – a commentary worth thinking about as this is frequently stated with contempt; it holds an element of reality in it.
But still, relying on it to quickly create an adequate design isn’t always bad. With that said, depending too much on Bootstrap is a sign of making things easier for several developers and designers, which may lead to complete dependency on it and can be detrimental to creators’ creativity and zeal to explore their skills.
Using Bootstrap for each design assignment implies we are denying the project’s ideal way of doing things. Instead, we are constructing everything around it to save development time, originality, effort, and energy.
Advantages:
Bootstrap speeds up the creation of layouts by providing a vast number of templates and pre-made solutions. Other invaluable benefits include the following –
Easy to Use
One of the important reasons why Bootstrap is popular is because of Its simple and easy-to-use file structure. However, it requires a fundamental grip on HTML, CSS, and JS.
In addition, Bootstrap is simple and easy to learn and use; an individual with good bootstrap skills can style a whole web application.
On the contrary, this does not apply to CSS, which is easy to learn when it comes to its basics but hard to master. Styling a complex web application using CSS is not a simple job, even if you excel in it; hence it takes time and effort, which Bootstrap reduces significantly.
Great Starting Point
It’s not a bad idea at all to consider Bootstrap as a starting point to swiftly put together a simple and functional layout or design. Hence the developer can focus on other developing functionality of the website.
Browser Compatibility
Bootstrap fulfills the requirements of making your websites accessible, which helps you rank high in search results as being compatible with popular browsers’ latest versions.
Responsiveness
These days, most people use their phones to browse the web. Therefore, implementing responsive mobile designs is easier with Bootstrap than with CSS.
Thanks to its excellent responsive grid system, Bootstrap simplifies creating a responsive layout just by applying a few predefined classes.
Encourages Consistency
Bootstrap was developed to eliminate the inconsistency issues between front-end and back-end developers. Bootstrap removes the use of libraries that always differ from one developer to the other. Thus, you get stability and consistency in project elements.
Consistent UI
Bootstrap makes it easy to design a consistent layout. It’s easy to predict how Bootstrap-styled components will look and behave.
With one framework, multiple developers can collaborate and design the app without UI inconsistencies.
Potential Customizability
Bootstrap lets the developers overwrite standard classes to give the website an extraordinary look. You can change the color palette of UI components to match your brand colors or use one of the many readymade templates.
Disadvantages:
Websites with Similar Appearances
Bootstrap sites may look similar because of readymade templates and their overuse because they are open-source. Additionally, customizations in the appearance of its classes demand good CSS knowledge.
Doesn’t Promote Skill Enhancement
Developers learn and reinforce their CSS skills by working and implementing them in web development. Unfortunately, Bootstrap provides predefined CSS classes, which do not encourage hard work, skill enhancement, or growth in knowledge.
Conclusion
Just like everything has pros and cons of always, including in any prestigious frameworks, programs, etc., the reliance on the same too comes with its perks and perils. Though, it is undoubtedly a trend that needs to be held on to.
So, it is better to use it with caution and implement it; hence Bootstrap must be used where necessary. However, as our web apps and sites grow, we will find Bootstrap as a high curvature for a beginner’s solution.
For front-end development, JS can help create better, faster, and nicely optimized applications that run seamlessly on different gadgets. When it comes to design, opting to use a framework similar to Bootstrap (or Bootstrap itself) is not an awful call. However, most cutting-edge JS libraries and frameworks have responsive support and may offer more than that. Therefore, in retrospect, Bootstrap is an excellent option for web development if it is used for its helpful features but without overusing it so that your design may stand out and not lose its unique design.
