9 Popular React UI Component Libraries for Beginners in 2022

Did you know that according to the survey, 40.14 percent of respondents reported using React.JS, while 34.43 percent were using jQuery? Needless to say, React.js is the most used framework among developers. React powers the user interfaces (UI) of approximately  10 million websites across the internet. Since the base library of React is rigid, there are various component libraries topped up by valuable design elements for your React applications or web/mobile development projects. 

Before getting into the React-based UI component libraries, let’s first flick through the advantages of those libraries which will answer your question of why you should go for them in the first place:

• UI libraries are beginner-friendly as they consist of prebuilt components including fields, buttons, etc. 
• You can swiftly create various functioning prototypes because of ready-made React components at your disposal.
• Utilization of such libraries saves time, not only during prototyping but also while developing web or mobile application development projects 
• Most of the components can be customized to some extent.
• React-based UI component libraries usually have their communities centered around GitHub. 
• These libraries have built-in accessibility features. 

By the end of this article, hopefully, you will get familiar with some of the brilliant React-based UI component libraries for your web or mobile application development project. 

So without any further ado, let’s jump right into each one of them. 

1. Blueprint

Blueprint features more than 40 modern-age components in its library. This library is used by more than 9,800 projects on GitHub. The center of attention is building a React UI for complex data-dense desktop applications, and therefore, it is not completely mobile responsive. This library is built on 0.7% unspecified code, 2.2% JavaScript, 8.2% SCSS and 88.9% TypeScript. 

2. Rebass

Rebass features primitive React UI components along with a straightforward system for further designing. This library is used by more than 10,000 projects in GitHub. The components of this library are highly flexible, minimalistic, and responsive. The best thing about this library is it is an extremely lightweight library with only a 43KB bundle size. Rebass is 100% built on Javascript. 

3. Theme UI

Theme UI is basically a library for building React UI themes with more than 30 primitive UI components. This library is used by more than 15,000 projects on GitHub. The major concept of this library relies on constraint-based design principles. This library is built on 0.2% unspecified code, 24.9% JavaScript, and 74.9% TypeScript.  

4. Chakra UI

Chakra UI offers modular, straightforward, and customizable React components to support web application and mobile application development. This library is used by more than 20,000 projects on GitHub. All the elements of this library are optimized for dark mode. Unlike some other existing UI component libraries, Chakra UI is entirely compatible with the WAI-ARIA accessibility standard. Chakra UI is built on 0.6% unspecified code, 1.9% JavaScript, and 97.5% TypeScript. 

5. Semantic UI React 

Semantic UI React is a front-end component library for mobile-responsive, ready-made solutions. This library is used by more than 132,000 projects on GitHub. As it is clear from its name, it is the official React integration of the Semantic UI development framework, known for its human-friendly and responsive HTML code. This library is built on 0.1% TypeScript, and 99.9% JavaScript. 

6. Reactstrap

Reactstrap offers self-contained and straightforward components for Bootstrap 5.1. This famous library is used by more than 241,000 projects in GitHub. The UI elements are applicable for a variety of projects, simple in design, and are extremely responsive. This library is built on 0.4% Shell, 24.9% TypeScript, and 74.7% JavaScript. 

7. Ant Design 

Ant Design is a react UI library and design system for enterprise-level users, which means that the elements are designed for business use. This library is used by more than 255,000 projects on GitHub. The Chinese tech giant called Alibaba is developed with the help of this library. This library is built on 31.1 JavaScript, 24.9% Less, 43.7% TypeScript and 0.3% unspecified code. 

8. React Bootstrap 

React Bootstrap is one of the oldest React-based UI component libraries and is currently used by more than 605,000 projects on GitHub. It is a really popular frontend framework Bootstrap entirely rebuilt in React. This library possesses ready-made components which are effortlessly accessible and extremely responsive. 

9. MUI (Formerly Material-UI) 

MUI is a highly customizable React components library and is straightforward based on Google’s Material design. This library is used by more than 745,000 projects on GitHub because it is an entire design system. MUI is built on 36.1% TypeScript and 63.9% JavaScript. 

Key Takeaways 

At the heart of it all, you won’t have to start development from scratch and you can create unique designs by customizing the components to your specific requirements. Let’s have a glance at the quick summary of the suitable use cases of all the React-based UI component libraries covered in this post. 

• Take a look at Rebass and Theme UI for primitive components. 
• Reactstrap and React-Bootstrap are best for compatibility with Gatsby themes, Theme UI, and Bootstrap themes. 
• You should consider Blueprint, Chakra UI, React-Bootstrap, or MUI if out-of-the-box accessibility is crucial to your react project.  
• The Blueprint would be the best choice for data-dense desktop applications.
• MUI, Semantic UI React, and Blueprint are appropriate for a large number of prebuilt components and great documentation. 

I highly recommend beginners explore all of the libraries covered in this article as it will help you kickstart your React-based mobile application or web application project.