Material UI
A React component library of ready-made UI pieces built on Google's Material Design.
- Stars
- 99.3k
- Forks
- 32.5k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- JavaScript
- Last update
- 4 days ago
- Type
- Library
What it is
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.
- Building a React web app with prebuilt buttons, forms and navigation
- Starting from the example projects in the repository
- Adding complex components from MUI X for advanced data needs
- Using the MUI Store templates and themes for faster project setup
Great for
- 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
Not ideal for
- 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
How to get it
- 1
Install with a package manager
You'll need: Node.js · React
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/styled - 2
Run it
- Follow the Getting Started guide in the official documentation at next.mui.com/material-ui/getting-started/
- Create or open a React project
- Import a component such as Button from @mui/material and render it
- Run your React app to see the component on the page
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Use the example projects in the repository's examples folder as starting points
- Read the official documentation for theming and customization
- Use the MUI Store for premium templates and themes if you need a complete starting design
- Check the roadmap page to see planned features
Downloads
Strengths
- 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
Trade-offs
- 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
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| material-ui (this) | 99.3k | Library | intermediate | 4 days ago | React developers who want a consistent, prebuilt set of UI components |
| chakra-ui | 40.7k | Library | intermediate | 4 days ago | React developers who want prebuilt UI components instead of styling from scratch |
| ant-design | 100k | Library | intermediate | 4 days ago | React developers building admin dashboards or internal business tools |
| mantine | 31.9k | Library | intermediate | 4 days ago | React developers building web apps who want many components out of the box |
| base-ui | 11.3k | Library | intermediate | 4 days ago | React developers who want accessible components without a fixed visual style |
| daisyui | 42.7k | Library | intermediate | 6 days ago | Developers already using Tailwind CSS who want prebuilt components |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.