Best UI frameworks for Vue 3 in 2022
VueJS is a popular JavaScript front-end framework for creating user interfaces. Released in Sept. 2020, Vue 3 has continuously gained popularity for creating web, desktop and mobile apps.
Vue JS itself is quite un-opinionated about the styling you choose for your applications. Therefore, it's the responsibility of front-end developers to build a uniform design system for your product. Building this from scratch takes time and a lot of iterative design work.
That's where UI frameworks come into play. These user interface libraries are encapsulated packages of Vue based components. They contain both typical (layout, buttons etc.) and specialised interface elements (date picker, animations etc.).
Let's look at some of these frameworks with full support for native Vue 3 components.
Table of Contents
Element Plus
Element Plus is a UI framework created by same team as Element UI (a popular desktop UI library). Written in TypeScript and built on Vue 3 composition API, it combines ease of use with a range of beautiful Vue components.
Since it's stable release in early February 2022, the project has been growing in popularity. Currently, it boasts about half a million downloads per month along with 16k GitHub stars.
The team has given careful considerations while building the framework, as the included UI elements can be used for small niche websites to enterprise ready applications. Moreover, it comes with Vite and Laravel quick-starter templates and can even be integrated with Nuxt 3.
Quasar Framework
Looks can be deceiving, and that is definitely true for Quasar. Although the project's website looks rather plain, it comes with so many features that the framework has become almost synonymous for cross-platform Vue applications.
The library has a complete set of UI components. However, this can be expanded further by plugins, some of which have been already developed by the community. It even comes with custom Vue directives and hooks to provide additional functionality.
For mobile apps, it supports both Ionic Capacitor and Apache Cordova. The GitHub repo currently has ~ 22K stars. The best way to use this framework is through its official CLI tool.
Naive UI
Naive UI is truly Naïve, or so it would seem. The sole purpose of this component library is to keep you running. No really! Along with providing 80 components, it has a super simple setup with out-of-the-box Vue composition API support.
The documentation is straightforward and spot-on, with detailed usage of each component and even a handy search feature. What's more is that you can even import certain components on demand rather than the whole library through tree shaking.
It also supports Server-Side Rendering (SSR) with Nuxt and enables the use of JSX/TSX as well. It currently has ~ 10K GitHub stars.
PrimeVue
One of my favourites, its not just a UI library but a complete toolkit. With 90+ open source components, numerous Prime blocks, CSS utilities, Icon library and even a free admin template - this is a prime candidate for enterprise websites or apps.
Documentation is surplus and the examples are plenty with both Options API and Composition API source code. It also comes with CSS styled themes from popular projects like Material, Bootstrap, Tailwind and FluentUI.
What's more is that it even comes with a Theme Designer, although it's a paid option. The project is comparatively new, but gaining popularity quickly. GitHub repo boasts a modest 2.5K stars.
Ant Design Vue
If you don't mind the occasional 'Mandarin' here and there, this is another popular offering provided by Ant Group's (Alibaba) tech team. As expected, it comes with plenty of solid design components fully compatible with Vue 3.
Source code examples are available in both JavaScript and TypeScript, and the documentation is well defined and easy to read. It supports Server Side Rendering and also Electron apps.
Moreover, you can use import the library manually or use a build tool like Vite or Webpack. It has almost 17K stars on GitHub.
Vant 3
Another interesting project, specifically aimed at being lightweight. It comes with 70+ built-in components with an average size of 1KB each. Written in TypeScript, it supports both Vue 3 and Vue 2.
Some of its other features include Custom theming, Tree shaking, SSR and even support for Dark mode (currently in alpha Vant 4). The Quickstart guide is especially helpful, and the documentation is quite extensive. This project has ~ 20K GitHub stars.
Ionic Vue
Ionic is typically associated with hybrid mobile app development. However, that is no longer true! The project and the company behind it has come a long way in catering a quality product to its users.
With the latest version, it comes with several UI components that support not only Vue but also React, Angular and plain old JavaScript. For making mobile apps, this is simply a no-brainer with the integration of Ionic Capacitor that comes with completely native plugins.
The documentation is pretty spot-on along with handy cross-platform deployment guides and troubleshooting guides.
Inkline
Inkline has three core values - (Great) User Interface, User Experience and Developer Experience. Maintained by a core developer and commits from other community members, this library provides a nice foundation for building customised Vue 3 design systems.
Although it does come with a lot of built-in components, some of the advanced ones are not available. However, it more than makes up for it by being lightweight and even providing a dark mode.
Vuestic UI
Another lightweight library that comes with 50+ components and modern styles. Along with UI elements, it supports tree shaking, custom theming and integration with Nuxt JS.
An important forward is keyboard navigation which is quite helpful for accessibility purposes. The documentation is succinct and straightforward. The official roadmap suggests several new features in development.
CoreUI for Vue (Admin Template)
An UI library as well as an Admin Template, this 2-in-1 project aims at reducing the development time for your next project. It boasts 100% combability with Bootstrap achieved by building all its components from scratch.
The documentation is pretty up to the mark, also highlighting components and forms that are only available in the paid CoreUI Pro option. The admin template is quite lightweight, although a bit behind on the styling front. Nevertheless, good enough to be included in this list.
Hopefully, you now have a good overview of all these Vue 3 UI frameworks and are ready to include one (or maybe more) in your next awesome project. That's it for now! 😊