Top CSS Frameworks in 2025: What Devs Actually Use

CSS frameworks have always been about saving time. But in 2025, the landscape looks noticeably different from what it did just two years ago.

Tailwind tops the framework rankings according to the State of CSS 2025 survey, and the rest of the field is reshuffling fast. The State of CSS 2025 survey shows 37% of developers actively using Tailwind compared to 21.6% for Bootstrap.

This post covers the five most-used CSS frameworks right now, what makes each one worth knowing, and which type of project each one fits best. The data comes directly from the State of CSS 2025 report.

What is the most popular CSS framework in 2025?

Tailwind CSS is the most used CSS framework in 2025, with 37% of developers actively using it according to the State of CSS survey.

1. Tailwind CSS

Tailwind is a utility-first framework that changed how most developers think about writing CSS. Instead of pulling in pre-designed components, you compose your UI by combining small utility classes directly inside your HTML. flex, gap-4, text-sm, bg-blue-600 — each class does one thing, and you stack them to build exactly what you want.

Tailwind CSS commands 31.1 million weekly downloads, 12.5x more than Bootstrap, and Tailwind CSS v4.0 released in January 2025 runs full builds up to 5x faster than v3, with incremental builds over 100x faster.

According to the State of CSS 2025, Tailwind appeals especially to developers with around 10 years of median experience, while more senior developers tend to use custom or in-house frameworks.

Best for: Custom product UIs, SaaS dashboards, design systems, any project where you want full control over the visual output without fighting framework defaults.

Heads up: HTML can get verbose. If you're new to it, the class names take a couple of days to internalize. That said, once you know them, you rarely need to leave your markup.

Is Bootstrap still worth using in 2025?

Yes. Bootstrap remains the second most-used CSS framework, preferred for projects that need reliable pre-built components and quick setup without a steep learning curve.

2. Bootstrap

Bootstrap was the framework that popularized mobile-first design, and it's still the go-to for teams that want to move fast with a proven component library. Buttons, modals, navbars, grids, forms — they're all there, ready to drop in.

Bootstrap delivers a comprehensive component ecosystem with 30+ components that cover most common UI patterns, from navigation bars to progress indicators.

Bootstrap's bundle weighs around 16KB gzipped. That's larger than Tailwind's production output, but it's a reasonable tradeoff for teams who want predictability and don't want to rebuild every UI element from scratch.

Best for: Rapid prototyping, admin interfaces, enterprise tools, teams with mixed CSS experience levels, and projects where a consistent baseline matters more than a unique visual identity.

Heads up: Bootstrap sites can look similar to each other if you don't put in the customization work. Escaping the default Bootstrap look takes effort.

What is Ant Design used for?

Ant Design is a component library built for enterprise React applications. It provides a complete, opinionated design system used widely in large-scale products.

3. Ant Design

Ant Design isn't a CSS framework in the traditional sense — it's a full design system with hundreds of polished React components baked in. It's built by Alibaba and reflects the design standards used across large-scale enterprise products. Tables, forms, date pickers, data visualizations — AntD has all of it.

It enforces a strict visual language, which is both its strength and its constraint. If your project lives inside its design boundaries, you move very fast. If your brand needs to look different, you'll be fighting the defaults.

Best for: Large React applications, internal tooling, enterprise dashboards, projects where design consistency matters more than visual uniqueness.

Heads up: This is React-only. If you're using Vue, Angular, or vanilla JS, Ant Design isn't the right pick.

Is Bulma still relevant in 2025?

Yes. Bulma v1.0 launched in early 2025 with CSS variables and official dark mode, making it a modern, lightweight option for teams that want clean Flexbox layouts without any JavaScript dependencies.

4. Bulma

Bulma is a CSS-only framework built on Flexbox, and it has always stood out for its readable class names and clean defaults. Bulma released v1.0.0 in March 2025 with CSS variables throughout and official dark mode, and with 93,369 weekly downloads, Bulma offers a modern, CSS-only framework that requires no JavaScript.

If you want something lighter than Bootstrap that doesn't come with JavaScript baked in, Bulma is worth a serious look. It's modular, meaning you can import only what you need.

Best for: Projects that don't need JS-powered components, teams that want clean Flexbox layouts, developers who prefer semantic, readable class names over utility soup.

Heads up: No built-in JavaScript means you'll need to wire up interactivity yourself (or pair it with Alpine.js or a JS framework).

What happened to Materialize CSS?

Materialize CSS is still available but has not received verified updates in 2024-2025, which raises maintenance concerns for long-term projects. Teams that need Material Design are now more likely to use Material UI for React instead.

5. Materialize CSS

Materialize implements Google's Material Design principles and delivers a recognizable, polished visual style with cards, floating action buttons, ripple effects, and responsive layouts. It was popular for years as the go-to option when Material Design aesthetics were the goal.

No verifiable updates for 2024-2025 warrant careful evaluation before adoption. If Material Design is a hard requirement for your project and you're using React, Material UI is currently the better-maintained path. If you're building something lightweight and your project scope is well-defined, Materialize can still get the job done.

Best for: Projects where Material Design is a direct requirement and maintenance risk is acceptable.

Heads up: If you're starting something new and expect to maintain it long-term, check whether the framework is still actively maintained before committing.

What Does the State of CSS 2025 Tell Us?

Beyond just framework rankings, the 2025 survey reveals a broader shift in how developers relate to CSS itself.

CSS started as a document layout system, but it's now clear that interactive web apps represent its primary use case — a fact that has been driving the language's rapid evolution.

Grid, :has(), and CSS Nesting are the features that most changed how developers write CSS in recent years, according to survey respondents. Meanwhile, Anchor Positioning kept its number one spot as the most-cited browser incompatibility issue, with the percentage of respondents citing it nearly doubling year over year.

Happiness with CSS specifically shows a clear upward trend in recent years, which aligns with the language's own rapid pace of improvement.

The practical implication: CSS frameworks are getting leaner, because native CSS keeps absorbing what once required a framework. Features like container queries, cascade layers, and CSS nesting mean you need less boilerplate than you did three years ago.

Which Framework Should You Pick?

Here's the honest summary:

Pick Tailwind if you want total control, a unique design, and don't mind investing a day or two learning the class system. It's the industry standard for modern product UIs.

Pick Bootstrap if you need to ship fast with reliable components, your team is mixed in CSS experience, or you're building something conventional like an admin panel or corporate site.

Pick Ant Design if you're in a React-first enterprise environment and need a complete, opinionated design system out of the box.

Pick Bulma if you want something clean, lightweight, and CSS-only — especially if you're pairing it with a JS framework that already handles interactivity.

Pick Materialize CSS cautiously. It's a capable framework for Material Design projects, but verify that the maintenance situation is acceptable for your timeline before committing.

FAQ

What is a CSS framework?

A CSS framework is a collection of pre-written styles and components - grids, buttons, typography rules, form elements — designed to give you a consistent starting point so you don't have to write repetitive CSS from scratch on every project.

Can you use Tailwind CSS with React, Vue, or Next.js?

Yes. Tailwind is framework-agnostic and integrates cleanly with React, Vue, Angular, Next.js, Nuxt, Svelte, and most other JavaScript frameworks. It's one of the reasons it has grown so quickly.

Is it okay to use no CSS framework at all?

Increasingly, yes. Native CSS features like Grid, Flexbox, container queries, custom properties, and CSS nesting now cover a lot of what frameworks used to provide. Choosing to write vanilla CSS on smaller or well-scoped projects is a valid call in 2025.

What is the difference between a utility-first and a component-based CSS framework?

A utility-first framework (like Tailwind) gives you small, single-purpose classes that you combine to build any UI. A component-based framework (like Bootstrap or Ant Design) gives you pre-built, styled elements — buttons, cards, modals — that you drop into your markup. Utility-first gives more flexibility; component-based gives more speed up front.