What is the difference between Bootstrap and Foundation? (2024)

To facilitate the development process, developers may use front-end frameworks to help them create interfaces faster and more efficiently. These frameworks have pre-packaged code for design elements such as buttons and navigation bars.

In this Answer, we'll compare two popular front-end frameworks, Bootstrap and Foundation.

What is Bootstrap?

Bootstrap is a free front-end framework that aids in the creation of responsiveA response website changes its layout according to the visitor's screen orientation and size. and dynamic websites. It uses CSS and JavaScript to provide reusable layout components, including drop-downs and pop-overs. Since it requires only basic HTML and CSS knowledge, it is easy to implement for beginners.

Example

The following example uses the Bootstrap framework to create a simple navigation bar.

Explanation

The following is the explanation for the code to create a simple navigation bar using Bootstrap:

• Lines 6–8: The relevant compressed CSS and JavaScript packages are loaded here. This allows us to use Bootstrap components in the HTML code.

• Lines 12–29: This is the code for the navigation bar. Classes navbar, container-fluid, and navbar-nav define the layout of the bar.

• Line 14: The navbar-brand class may be used for the title of the site.

• Line 20: The active class is used to mark the active pages.

• Lines 15–18: For the responsiveness of the navigation bar, the navbar-toggler and navbar-collapse classes are used.

Note: Both Bootstrap and Foundation must be included from a CDN (Content Delivery Network) in the HTML code or manually downloaded before use.

What is Foundation?

Foundation, similar to Bootstrap, is a front-end framework for responsive designs. It is highly customizable and semantic.Semantic code is clear and meaningful. An example of this is using

The tags are in HTML allowing developers to include or remove elements from the pre-packaged components by updating the associated CSS files. Compared to other frameworks, it has a more advanced interface and is targeted toward professionals.

Note: To know more about Foundation, please refer to its official documentation.

Example

This example uses the Foundation framework to create a simple navigation bar for comparison purposes.

Explanation

The following is the explanation for the code to create a simple navigation bar using Foundation:

• Lines 5–7: The relevant compressed CSS and JavaScript packages are loaded here. This allows to use Foundation that tell us to add cdn or manually download these to use them in html. components in the HTML code.

• Lines 11–13: This is the code for the navigation bar. Classes row, columns, and menu define the layout of the bar.

• Line 14: The menu-text class may be used for the title of the site.

• Line 15: The is-active class is used to mark the active pages.

Differences

Now that we know a bit about Bootstrap and Foundation individually, let us compare them using the table below:

In conclusion, Bootstrap is a good choice as a framework for beginners and the creation of simple yet responsive websites. On the other hand, Foundation facilitates the creation of unique and customizable websites but may be complex for beginners.