Material vs SnapKit
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 Swift UI framework for iOS apps with Material Design-style components and animations.
Open source · MIT
A Swift library that makes writing iOS and macOS Auto Layout constraints shorter and easier to read.
The short answer
Choose Material if you need…
- iOS developers who want Material Design-style components without building them from scratch
- Developers maintaining existing Swift projects that already use Material
- Projects that need Material's card, text field, or navigation drawer components
Choose SnapKit if you need…
- Swift developers building UIKit or AppKit interfaces in code rather than Interface Builder
- Teams who want more readable Auto Layout code
- Developers maintaining an existing project that already uses SnapKit
Side-by-side
| Material | SnapKit | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Library | Library |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 12k | 20.3k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Install with a package manager | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | Swift | Swift |
| Last code update | 4 years ago | 4 months ago |
What each one is
Material
Material is a UI/UX framework for building iOS apps in Swift. It provides ready-made interface components such as cards, text fields, navigation drawers, toolbars, and floating action menus, styled after Google's Material Design look. It also uses the separate Motion library to handle animations and transitions.
SnapKit
SnapKit is a Swift library for building app screen layouts with Apple's Auto Layout system. Instead of writing long, verbose constraint code, you describe positions and sizes in a short, chained syntax. It is aimed at developers building iOS, macOS, or tvOS apps.
Best for
Material
- iOS developers who want Material Design-style components without building them from scratch
- Developers maintaining existing Swift projects that already use Material
- Projects that need Material's card, text field, or navigation drawer components
SnapKit
- Swift developers building UIKit or AppKit interfaces in code rather than Interface Builder
- Teams who want more readable Auto Layout code
- Developers maintaining an existing project that already uses SnapKit
Strengths
Material
- Covers many common components (cards, drawers, tabs, search bar, snackbar) in one package
- Includes sample projects in a separate repository to learn from
- MIT license permits use in commercial projects
SnapKit
- Short, chainable syntax compared with raw Auto Layout constraint code
- Released under the permissive MIT license
- Includes an online documentation site and FAQ linked from the README
Not ideal for
Material
- Teams starting a new app today, since the README lists iOS 8.0+ and Swift 4.0+ and the last push was in May 2022
- Android or cross-platform projects, since this is iOS-only
- Developers who need SwiftUI support, which the README does not mention
SnapKit
- Developers who build their interfaces visually in Storyboards or SwiftUI, since the README only covers code-based Auto Layout
- Projects that must run on older OS or Xcode versions than the README's stated requirements, because it requires iOS 14.0+, macOS 12.0+, tvOS 14.0+, Xcode 26.0+ and Swift 6.0+
Trade-offs
Material
- The README targets old tooling (iOS 8.0+, Xcode 8.0+) and the last push is from 2022
- Documentation is mostly sample links and GIFs; the README gives little API detail
- The latest release lists no binaries, so you install through a dependency manager or by copying source
SnapKit
- Requires recent toolchains (Xcode 26.0+, Swift 6.0+), which may not suit older projects
- The README is brief and focuses on installation and one example, so advanced usage must be learned from the external docs
- Only supports Apple platforms
Getting started
Material
Install CocoaPods
gem install cocoapodsInstall the pod (after adding pod 'Material', '~> 3.1.0' to your Podfile)
pod installSnapKit
Add SnapKit to Package.swift dependencies
.package(url: "https://github.com/SnapKit/SnapKit.git", .upToNextMajor(from: "6.0.0"))Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Material and SnapKit?
Material: A Swift UI framework for iOS apps with Material Design-style components and animations. SnapKit: A Swift library that makes writing iOS and macOS Auto Layout constraints shorter and easier to read. Material suits ios developers who want material design-style components without building them from scratch, while SnapKit suits swift developers building uikit or appkit interfaces in code rather than interface builder.
Are Material and SnapKit free?
Material: Free and open source. SnapKit: Free and open source.
Is Material or SnapKit more popular?
SnapKit has more GitHub stars (20.3k) than Material (12k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to Material and SnapKit?
Other options people compare them with include Motion, Materialize, Material Design In XAML Toolkit, RAMAnimatedTabBarController, FoldingCell.
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.