Top 18 Free CSS3 Resources To Build Fast Lightweight Websites

Nowadays when it comes to web design, clients expect a product that is perfect in every manner whether we refer to design, usability, responsiveness as well as speed. Many new features came into the world of developers along with the introduction to CSS3 to aid them with web designing. CSS3 based free libraries were also introduced allowing developers to write less code and resulted in a finished product that satisfied all the needs of their clients. In this article, we shall discuss 18 free CSS3 resources that brought a revolution in the world of web designing.

1. Bootstrap

Twitter Bootstrap is used by almost 4% of the websites on the entire internet and among 25% of the top ranked websites. It is the perfect solution if you want to create responsive web pages and with the built-in grid system and lots of other UI components, it is the most reliable CSS3 framework that is worth using.

2. Foundation

Foundation is a mobile-first framework. Although its functionality is the same as Bootstrap, there are some minor differences. Used by 5% among the 10000 top ranked websites. It provides a base for creating a responsive website with more advanced components like a flex grid and typography.

3. UIKit

With a little planning and using less resource, users can create dynamic responsive websites using UIKit. This framework offers a lot of interactive components by using CSS3, Less.js and Sass that make web designing easier and fun-filled.

4. LESS (Leaner Style Sheets)

Alexis Sellier designed LESS, a dynamic language that can be compiled into CSS and rendered to a server as well as client side. It is popular among developers because it requires less line of codes and has a block formatting syntax just like CSS.

5. SCSS (Sassy CSS)

It is a superset of CSS3 which introduced lesser lines of codes and more usage of mixins. Applications developed using SCSS have reusable components which are faster to load and hence, popular among applications that involve Advanced JavaScript frameworks.

6. Toast

Another CSS3 frameworks ideal for creating responsive web pages. Just like Bootstrap, a 12-column responsive grid is used whereby efficient usage of box-sizing, borders, and paddings can be dynamically added to the grid.

7. Ingrid

This is a fluid CSS layout system that is lightweight that comes with the objective of reducing classes that are applied to individual components. This feature makes it more intrusive and fun to create responsive layouts.

8. Bulma

Built with Sass and integrating flex, Bulma is an open source framework. Also, the user base is small, it is easier to use it, especially for the fact that applications developed by the framework are cross-browser compatible.

9. Semantic UI

This framework is developed with the objective of providing developers with a shared resource. Apart from providing a CSS library, it also provides modularized components that can be customized according to the developer’s choice before implementing in their project.

10. Mini.css

Mini.css is more like a micro framework. It involves compressing a very large CSS file into a file as small as 7kb. In the advanced age of interconnected devices, the requirement of light and fast websites with rich UI elements is higher. This is where mini.css comes into play.

11. Material

Material is a combination of Google’s Material Design along with Bootstrap. Using it, developers can create responsive web pages. Used by over 500000 developers and coming with a mobile-first approach, the framework is rich with new and interactive components that make responsive web design easier.

12. Atomic Bulldog Grid

This framework is an SCSS based methodology that provides a fallback procedure wherever flex is not working properly. Integrating with Node KSS, it generates a style guide library that makes styling a webpage easier and faster.

13. Skeleton

For building a quality website, you need a library that is light but rich in components. Skeleton comes as a solution with only 400 lines of code. Within that, it has media queries, a grid, typography and all other features required to create a quality website.

14. Base

A simple but robust framework, Base is built with lightweight and minimal lines of code. It gave developers an opportunity to easily create cross-browser compatible responsive websites.

15. Spectre

Available at Github, less than 10Kb in size, Spectre.css provides a responsive and mobile-friendly layout that is based on flexbox using which, developers can design mobile-friendly responsive websites.

16. Simple grid CSS

It is not a framework but a CSS stylesheet that provides an option to create a grid layout wherever the usage of Bootstrap is not possible due to some restrictions, limitations or other issues.

17. Picnic CSS

This is maybe the lightest CSS framework available with a size of the only 3kb. But don’t go for its size. It has all the materials available for creating a fully functional website.

18. Flat Remix CSS Library

Coming with a set of inbuilt elements, this library provides the option for fast web development without any complications. It also follows an approach of modern design techniques like sharp borders or high contrasts.

In the above article, we have only scratched the base. There are hundreds of free CSS frameworks, with new ones being added every day to comfort the web developers. So, go on, use any of them to create your website, or merge them to create a new framework that follows all the latest trends. Do let us know if you have any other free CSS framework in mind.

Arnab Roy Chowdhury

Arnab Roy Chowdhury is a UI developer by profession and a blogging enthusiast. He has been writing content for about 5 years and has strong expertise in technical blogs, travelogues, and content in the latest programming languages.

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