Material Design Lite vs Polymer

Struggling to choose between Material Design Lite and Polymer? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

Material Design Lite is a Development solution with tags like material-design, responsive-design, web-components.

It boasts features such as Responsive layout system, Material Design compliant visual components, Customizable themes, Lightweight and modular code and pros including Open source and free to use, Good documentation and community support, Components work across modern browsers, Easy to customize and extend components.

On the other hand, Polymer is a Development product tagged with web-components, javascript, library, frontend.

Its standout features include Component-based architecture, Interoperability with other libraries, Declarative programming model, Data binding support, Template stamping, Shadow DOM encapsulation, Cross-browser support, and it shines with pros like Good documentation, Large community support, Performance optimizations, Simplifies web component development, Encapsulation promotes reusability, Lightweight library.

Feature	Material Design Lite	Polymer
Overall Score	N/A	N/A
Primary Category	Development	Development

Product Overview

Material Design Lite

Description: Material Design Lite (MDL) is an open-source HTML/CSS/JavaScript framework that implements Google's Material Design specifications. It provides responsive, customizable, cross-browser compatible components like buttons, cards, menus, and more out-of-the-box.

Polymer

Description: Polymer is an open-source JavaScript library for building web applications using Web Components. It allows developers to create custom, reusable HTML elements with encapsulated functionality and styles.

Key Features Comparison

Material Design Lite Features

• Responsive layout system
• Material Design compliant visual components
• Customizable themes
• Lightweight and modular code

Polymer Features

• Component-based architecture
• Interoperability with other libraries
• Declarative programming model
• Data binding support
• Template stamping
• Shadow DOM encapsulation
• Cross-browser support

Pros & Cons Analysis

Material Design Lite

Pros

• Open source and free to use
• Good documentation and community support
• Components work across modern browsers
• Easy to customize and extend components

Cons

• Less features than other Material frameworks
• Not as flexible as pure CSS solutions
• Relies on Sass/node for theming
• Not actively maintained anymore

Polymer

Pros

• Good documentation
• Large community support
• Performance optimizations
• Simplifies web component development
• Encapsulation promotes reusability
• Lightweight library

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Limited IE11 support
• Upgrade issues between major versions
• Not ideal for very large applications
• Some browser inconsistencies

Pricing Comparison

Material Design Lite

• Open Source

Polymer

• Open Source