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, or speed. Many new features came into the world of developers with the introduction to CSS3 to aid them with web designing. Free CSS3-based libraries were also introduced, allowing developers to write less code to get a finished product that satisfied all the needs of their clients. In this article, we shall discuss 18 free CSS3 resources that revolutionized the world of web design and front-end development. 

1. Bootstrap

Twitter Bootstrap is used by almost 4% of 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. With its 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 10,000 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 little planning or use of resources, 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 design easier and fun.

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 on the client-side. It is popular among developers because it requires fewer lines of codes and has a block formatting syntax just like CSS.

5. SCSS (Sassy CSS)

It is a superset of CSS3 which introduced fewer lines of codes and a heavier use of mixins. Applications developed using SCSS have reusable components which are faster to load and are thus popular among applications that involve advanced JavaScript frameworks.

6. Toast

Toast is another CSS3 framework that's 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 and comes with the objective of reducing classes that are applied to individual components. This feature makes it more intuitive 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 applications developed to be cross-browser compatible.

9. Semantic UI

This framework was 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 it 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 a light and fast website with rich UI elements is high. 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 500,000 developers and coming with a mobile-first approach, the framework is rich and brings new and interactive components that make responsive web design easier.

12. Atomic Bulldog Grid

This framework uses 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 codes. Within that, it has media queries, grids, 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 on GitHub, and less than 10Kb in size, Spectre.css provides a responsive and mobile friendly layout that is based on flexbox, which allows developers to 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 use of Bootstrap is not possible due to restrictions, limitations, or other issues.

17. Picnic CSS

This is may be 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 to modern design techniques like sharp borders or high contrasts.

In the above article, we have only scratched the surface. There are hundreds of free CSS frameworks, with new ones being added every day to help 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!