Bootstrap is a free and open-source CSS framework for developing responsive and mobile-first websites. It's great for creating content that looks good on all devices, including smartphones and tablets. Bootstrap comes with a responsive grid system, global CSS settings, extensive pre-built components including buttons, navbars, and forms, and optional JavaScript plugins to speed up the development process. In this blog post, I'll share my top 10 reasons why I use Bootstrap for my web development projects.

FREE AND OPEN SOURCE

Bootstrap is free to download and available to everyone. The open source documentation is easy to understand. If you're new to web development, Bootstrap is a great way to get started.

RESPONSIVE GRID SYSTEM

Bootstrap's responsive grid system is one of the reasons I use this CSS framework. The grid system helps you create content that looks good on all devices, including smartphones and tablets.

.MIN.CSS

When you download the bootstrap package it comes with a minified version. You can use the .min.css file if you want a more optimized page load.

EXTENSIVE COMPONENTS

Bootstrap comes with a variety of pre-built components including buttons, navbars, and forms. This helps speed up the development process and eliminates the need to create these common elements from scratch.

OPTIONAL JAVASCRIPT PLUGINS

If you need more functionality in your project and you're new to javascript you can use the set of prebuilt javascript components included with the framework. (personally I leave this out when going to to production sites.) These days it's much easier to write the components from scratch vs including an extra javascript library.

MOBILE-FIRST RESPONSIVE DESIGN

Bootstrap is designed to be responsive from the ground up. This means that your website will look great on any device, whether it's a phone, tablet, or desktop. You can also use bootstrap to create content that is specifically designed for mobile devices.

UTILITY CLASSES

If you're a fan of grid systems and responsive layouts, you'll want to explore bootstraps extensive set of utility classes. col-8 to col-lg-12 to d-block and more. The combination of classes and understanding the responsive breakpoints is great when designing for mobile first web applications.

PRE-BUILT COMPONENTS

Bootstrap comes with a huge variety of prebuilt components, including buttons, navbars, and forms. This can speed up the development process by allowing you to focus on your site's specific design rather than building these common elements from scratch.

CROSS BROWSER COMPATIBILITY

Using bootstraps grid system and responsive classes allows your site to be cross browser compatible without doing extensive QA testing on the front end. No more are the days of wondering "why is that div slightly higher or lower" in IE or Firefox. Bootstraps css grid make your site compatible in all major browsers so you know your users will see the same experience.

EASY TO USE

Once you understand the bootstrap grid system and it's documentation, it is very easy to use. All you need is a basic understanding of HTML and CSS to get started. Bootstrap's documentation is excellent and provides examples for nearly every component they offer. If you ever get stuck, there are plenty of bootstrap tutorials available online

Why You might need this

  • You're creating or maintaining hundreds of pages and you're required to keep the same CSS style guide or visual look.
  • If time is a factor and you need to launch a cross browser compatible page without devoting hours on extensive QA testing. Bootstrap will work in all major browsers if you use it correctly.
  • Maybe you just love grid systems like I do. They make a lot of sense for modern blog or e-commerce style web pages.

View Code Example Below:

TIP*

I remove as much weight I can from bootstrap before including it in my projects. For projects with paid traffic, load the bootstrap.min.css from a CDN for better performance. Once you master the ins and outs of bootstrap, you can customize and adjust it to fit where you need.


Updated: June 2021

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