2 Great Responsive CSS Frameworks

I was reading an article by Design Shack on 22 of the more popular Responsive CSS Frameworks and the list felt so overwhelming I though we could do a better job of listing just two really powerful and easy-to-use frameworks.

CSS frameworks have been around for years now and with the world going mobile (some call it a “Post-PC world“), responsive CSS frameworks are quickly becoming the future of web development.  After years of developing responsive websites (including this one) here are our top 2 CSS frameworks.  I encourage you (or your developer) to give at least one of them a try.

Columnal

Columnal is sort of a hybrid grid system that borrows the best elements from various other frameworks. It has the elastic DNA of the 1140px CSS Grid System with some 960.gs thrown in as well. It’s pretty standard stuff but a great starting place you might want to try out.

UPDATE 11/4/15: Columnal is no longer supported and/or has been compromised.  So, we removed links from here to there.  Bootstrap is a newer, more robust framework.  And it’s based on a lot on the same idea as Columnal had way back in 2012 (when this post was written).

Skeleton

Skeleton was one of the earliest responsive boilerplates to make an appearance and it’s still one of the best.  In concept, it’s a little like Foundation only it feels more lightweight (type, buttons and forms are the only UI elements included). Check it out and see how incredibly easy this tool makes it to get a responsive design up and running in minutes flat.

While some may hate on the whole idea of any sort of template or grid system for web design, I’ll freely admit they are not for everyone.  However, for those who prefer NOT to reinvent the wheel, these two responsive CSS frameworks are great places to start.

Ready to get fancy? Check out Design Shack’s post for their full list of 22 great responsive frameworks.