Whether you should master CSS or move to Bootstrap depends on your specific needs and goals.
Mastering CSS:
Advantages:
- Understanding CSS fully gives you complete control over the styling and layout of your web pages.
- It allows for greater customization and flexibility in design.
- You'll have a deeper understanding of how web styling works, which can be beneficial for troubleshooting and optimizing performance.
Considerations:
- Learning CSS thoroughly can take time and effort.
- It requires keeping up with updates and new features in CSS.
- You'll need to write more code compared to using frameworks like Bootstrap.
Using Bootstrap:
Advantages
- Bootstrap provides pre-designed CSS components and utilities that can speed up development.
- It offers a responsive grid system, making it easier to create layouts that work well across different screen sizes.
- It comes with built-in styles for various elements, reducing the need to write custom CSS.
Considerations:
- Bootstrap has its own learning curve, although it's generally quicker to pick up than mastering CSS from scratch.
- Your designs may look similar to other websites using Bootstrap if you stick solely to its default styles.
- Customization beyond Bootstrap's defaults might require additional CSS or overriding existing styles.
- Consider the following factors to make your decision:
- Project Requirements: If your project demands unique design or extensive customization, learning CSS fully might be more suitable. For quick prototyping or projects with less emphasis on design customization, Bootstrap can be efficient.
- Time Constraints: If you need to deliver a project quickly, Bootstrap can save time due to its pre-built components and responsive grid system. Learning CSS fully will take more time initially, but it can offer long-term benefits in terms of flexibility and customization.
- Long-Term Goals: If you're pursuing a career in web development, understanding CSS thoroughly will be valuable in the long run. However, familiarity with Bootstrap is also beneficial since it's widely used in the industry.
Ultimately, a combination of both skills is ideal. Start with Bootstrap to get projects done efficiently, and gradually deepen your understanding of CSS to enhance your capabilities as a web developer.
Top comments (5)
I'd start with Bootstrap, because it will enable you to build responsive websites. You can maybe also start with Tailwind.
It will give more purpose and direction to what you are learning.
Then you can learn more specific styling with css later.
If you are trying to master CSS you absolutely should not start in Bootstrap or Tailwind.
Frameworks are designed to speed up development time and eliminate the need to write often reused styles. They also function well for developers with little CSS knowledge who wish to create functioning UIs, for example back end developers.
If you want to truly learn CSS write your own CSS and properly get to terms with what properties have what effect. Your comment even says "bootstrap allows you to build responsive sites" which is just wrong. Proper markup and media queries allows you to create responsive websites, which one would understand once they start writing their own CSS rather than relying on a frontend framework.
That's not completely true. Learning CSS first will help you to understand the basic concepts like flexbox and grid. Even though Bootstrap is easier to work with, you may struggle in situations where the article mentions:
I made the mistake of learning CSS frameworks first and did weird things such as using
floatfor grids šYes .good but if you want to build projects something as your own or a new thing in the industry that require more styling then mastering css is ideal
This is not an accurate information..It's just as saying someone should learn react before JavaScript which does not make sense.
Learn CSS to some level before moving to a library like bootstrap