Have you ever heard about React component libraries? I will discuss two commonly used today: MUI and Mantine, both open source.
React component libraries assist developers in building pages or applications more efficiently by offering functional components that can be seamlessly integrated into React projects. These components possess specific properties tailored to their respective functions.
Plenty of components are within these libraries, such as form elements, menus, icons, layout elements, etc. These are commonly used in designs to construct pages or parts of an application. Having these core components pre-built and easily customizable significantly speeds up the development process.
An important point to note is that even though the components are common and may appear in multiple applications, they won’t necessarily look the same in each one. This is because they offer a variety of properties that can be customized based on specific needs. Moreover, developers have the flexibility to use CSS properties to further tailor the components to match a design closely. I can confidently say that you can effectively replicate any design created by the UX Team and implement it using one of these React component libraries.
Another important feature to consider about these libraries is that the components are fully responsive and have specific properties tailored for it. This makes them even more advantageous for development, especially when adhering to the “mobile first” approach. With these libraries, developers can easily implement different layouts based on screen size or device type. They can also hide components on specific screen sizes or provide different looks for various devices.
Now, let’s delve a bit deeper into each library to understand what they offer and how we can make an informed choice between them.
MUI – Material UI
In addition to the general components mentioned earlier, MUI offers something called “MUI X,” which comprises advanced components used for complex or specific use cases. These include the Data Grid, Date and Time Pickers, Charts, and other specialized features. MUI also provides commercial paid versions (Pro and Premium), offering more customizable and specialized components. For instance, the Data Grid provides more robust features, allowing for the creation of even better tables. These paid versions can be an alternative for companies that frequently use tables on their pages and are willing to invest more to enhance their UX without dedicating expensive time to development.
MUI also provides a wide range of icons that can be utilized on web pages. This feature is particularly useful for menus or buttons, where icons are often essential. These icons come with properties that make it easy to specify color and size. Another valuable component MUI offers is “Typography”, which acts as a wrapper for text. The benefit here is that you can define font types and apply them throughout the entire application. So, if you need to update, for example, a main-level header, you can simply modify the configuration file, and all typographies using the same font family will automatically reflect the change.
Mantine
One of the standout features of the Mantine library is its support for theme creation. This feature lets you specify various properties, such as colors and fonts. It’s commonly used when designers establish a company palette for different screens and pages. With Mantine, these settings can be defined in a configuration file, and the components will automatically apply those colors and fonts. This makes it easy to customize for future updates, requiring only minor changes to the code.
Another intriguing feature of Matine is its hooks library. Hooks are a concept in React that allows you to extract logic used across components in a reusable manner. Mantine’s hooks library includes various functional scenarios such as screen changes, user idle detection, form management, and element movement. This allows the code to be executed whenever these scenarios occur. For instance, if a user resizes the screen, you can retrieve the new dimensions and update the components accordingly. Similarly, you can detect when the user is idle to display a screensaver or initiate a redirect after a period of inactivity, providing enhanced user experience and functionality.
Regarding payment, Mantine does not offer paid versions or premium features requiring a license to access additional components. This is a significant advantage, as all available components are included in the open-source version, making them accessible to all users without any extra cost.
As described above, these libraries are really powerful for developing on a day-to-day basis on applications; whether to use one library or another depends on the requirements of the team, taking into account what kind of components are needed and which of those are available to use and customize on each one. What I can tell for sure is that both of them have good support in terms of new versions, bug fixing, coding standards, and up-to-date features, which gives the assurance of using an excellent feature for your project.
If you want to learn more about these libraries, here are the links to its official documentation for further information:
Written by:
Kevin Alfredo Ureña
Sr. Full Stack Engineer
Country: Costa Rica
