Ant Design vs Material UI
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
A React component library and design system for building enterprise web apps.
Open source · MIT
A React component library of ready-made UI pieces built on Google's Material Design.
Our verdict
Ant Design and Material UI are both free, MIT-licensed React component libraries that provide ready-made buttons, menus, and form controls. The main difference is visual style: Ant Design ships its own enterprise-oriented design language and is built with TypeScript types, while Material UI follows Google's Material Design look and is written in JavaScript. Pick based on which look fits your project and whether you want TypeScript support out of the box.
Pick Ant Design if you are building an admin dashboard or internal business tool in React and want a consistent enterprise look with TypeScript types included.
Pick Material UI if you are building a React app and want components that follow Google's Material Design guidelines, with the companion MUI X library for advanced pieces.
| Key difference | Ant Design | Material UI |
|---|---|---|
| Visual style | Its own opinionated design language, aimed at enterprise apps. | Google's Material Design look by default. |
| Language | Written in TypeScript, so component types are available. | Main language is JavaScript. |
| Customization | Supports theme customization through a CSS-in-JS system. | Default look takes extra work to restyle. |
| Advanced components | Large set of components included out of the box. | Advanced components live in the separate MUI X project. |
| Framework | Built for React only. | Tied to React only, so no help with other frameworks. |
Written with AI from both products' catalogue entries · updated 2026-10-29
Who each one is for
Choose Ant Design if you need…
- React developers building admin dashboards or internal business tools
- Teams that want a consistent visual style without designing every component from scratch
- Projects that need TypeScript types for their UI components
- Developers who want theme customization through a CSS-in-JS system
Choose Material UI if you need…
- React developers who want a consistent, prebuilt set of UI components
- Teams that want to follow Material Design guidelines
- Projects that need a large, documented component set
- Developers who want to extend basic components with more complex ones from the companion MUI X library
Side-by-side
| Ant Design | Material UI | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Library | Library |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 100k | 99.3k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Install with a package manager | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last code update | 4 days ago | 4 days ago |
What each one is
Ant Design
Ant Design is a UI library for React, written in TypeScript, that provides a set of ready-made components such as buttons and date pickers, along with a design language to keep screens consistent. Developers install it from npm as the package named antd and import components into their own web applications. It also supports theme customization and internationalization.
Material UI
Material UI is a collection of React components, such as buttons, menus and form controls, that follow Google's Material Design visual system. Developers add these pieces to a React web app instead of building every interface element from scratch. The README describes it as a mature project with thousands of contributors and an MIT license.
Best for
Ant Design
- React developers building admin dashboards or internal business tools
- Teams that want a consistent visual style without designing every component from scratch
- Projects that need TypeScript types for their UI components
- Developers who want theme customization through a CSS-in-JS system
Material UI
- React developers who want a consistent, prebuilt set of UI components
- Teams that want to follow Material Design guidelines
- Projects that need a large, documented component set
- Developers who want to extend basic components with more complex ones from the companion MUI X library
Strengths
Ant Design
- Large set of React components available out of the box
- Written in TypeScript, so component types are available to users
- Supports theme customization and internationalization for dozens of languages
Material UI
- Large, well-documented component set based on a known design system
- Long development history and a large contributor base, according to the README
- Free under the MIT license
Not ideal for
Ant Design
- Projects that do not use React, since the components are built for React (reason: the README describes it as a React UI library)
- Beginners who only want a simple static website (reason: the library assumes familiarity with React and a build setup)
- Teams that need a non-Ant visual style and do not want to override the default theme (reason: the design language is opinionated)
Material UI
- People who are not writing React code, since the library is built for React specifically
- Teams that want a completely custom visual style without Material Design, because the components follow that look by default
- Beginners with no JavaScript or React background, who should learn the basics first
Trade-offs
Ant Design
- Requires familiarity with React and a JavaScript build toolchain
- Visual style is opinionated, so heavy restyling takes effort
- Supported environments are listed as modern browsers, server-side rendering, and Electron, with no version details beyond the browser table in the README
Material UI
- Tied to React, so it does not help with other frameworks
- Its default look is recognizably Material Design, which takes extra work to restyle
- Advanced components are in a separate project, MUI X, which may need its own setup
Getting started
Ant Design
Install with npm
npm install antdInstall with yarn
yarn add antdMaterial UI
Install the package from npm (command not shown in the README excerpt; this is the standard npm form)
npm install @mui/material @emotion/react @emotion/styledFrequently asked questions
Should I use Ant Design or Material UI?
Ant Design and Material UI are both free, MIT-licensed React component libraries that provide ready-made buttons, menus, and form controls. The main difference is visual style: Ant Design ships its own enterprise-oriented design language and is built with TypeScript types, while Material UI follows Google's Material Design look and is written in JavaScript. Pick based on which look fits your project and whether you want TypeScript support out of the box. Pick Ant Design if you are building an admin dashboard or internal business tool in React and want a consistent enterprise look with TypeScript types included. Pick Material UI if you are building a React app and want components that follow Google's Material Design guidelines, with the companion MUI X library for advanced pieces.
What is the difference between Ant Design and Material UI?
Ant Design: A React component library and design system for building enterprise web apps. Material UI: A React component library of ready-made UI pieces built on Google's Material Design. Ant Design suits react developers building admin dashboards or internal business tools, while Material UI suits react developers who want a consistent, prebuilt set of ui components.
Are Ant Design and Material UI free?
Ant Design: Free and open source. Material UI: Free and open source.
Is Ant Design or Material UI more popular?
Ant Design has more GitHub stars (100k) than Material UI (99.3k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to Ant Design and Material UI?
Other options people compare them with include Chakra UI, Mantine, daisyUI, Ant Design Mobile, Radix Primitives.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.