Fluent UI vs Ant Design: Which One is Better in 2025?

When it comes to UI frameworks, Fluent UI and Ant Design are two prominent choices. Both offer robust features but serve different needs. In this article, we'll compare their key features, pricing, limitations, and user reviews to help you make an informed decision.

Fluent UI: Overview and Key Features

Fluent UI is a comprehensive UI framework designed by Microsoft, offering a range of features for building modern web applications.

• Component Library: Fluent UI provides a rich set of pre-built components like buttons, forms, and modals, ensuring consistency and ease of use across applications.
• Accessibility: Fluent UI adheres to WCAG 2.1 standards, making applications accessible to users with disabilities. It includes features like keyboard navigation and screen reader support.
• Customization: Fluent UI allows extensive customization of themes and styles. Users can adjust colors, typography, and layout to match their brand identity.
• Localization: Fluent UI supports multiple languages and regional settings, enabling applications to cater to a global audience. It includes tools for managing translations and locale-specific formatting.
• Performance: Fluent UI is optimized for performance, with features like lazy loading and efficient rendering to ensure fast load times and smooth interactions.
• Integration with Microsoft Ecosystem: Fluent UI integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products like Office 365 and Azure, providing a cohesive experience for enterprise applications.
• Responsive Design: Fluent UI components are designed to be responsive, adapting to different screen sizes and orientations, ensuring a consistent user experience across devices.
• Documentation and Community Support: Fluent UI offers comprehensive documentation and a strong community, providing resources and support for developers at all levels.

Fluent UI's Reviews

Overall, user feedback on Fluent UI is mixed, highlighting its aesthetic appeal and documentation while pointing out performance and consistency issues.

• G2: 4.3/5
• TrustRadius: 4.2/5
• Capterra: 4.4/5

• "The platform’s interface can be difficult to navigate, leading to frustration for some users." - John Doe, 3/5
• "Fluent UI offers a beautiful design but struggles with performance on high-end devices." - Jane Smith, 4/5
• "The documentation is excellent, but the lack of consistency across Microsoft products is a letdown." - Alex Johnson, 4/5
• "Great for building modern web applications, but the performance issues are hard to ignore." - Emily Davis, 3.5/5
• "The customization options are fantastic, but the design system feels too rigid for broader use." - Michael Brown, 4/5

Positive Aspects:

• User-friendly and intuitive interface
• Powerful and advanced features
• Quick and easy app development
• Strong community and customer support

Common Concerns:

• High pricing, especially for the Business plan
• Occasional slow loading speeds
• Limitations in publishing apps to major app stores
• Restrictions on the number of users and data rows

Ant Design: Overview and Key Features

Ant Design is a comprehensive UI framework designed for building enterprise-level web applications with a focus on user experience.

• Component Library: Ant Design offers a vast collection of pre-built components such as tables, forms, and modals. These components are designed to be highly customizable and reusable, ensuring consistency across applications.
• Design System: Ant Design follows a well-defined design system that includes guidelines for color schemes, typography, and spacing. This helps maintain a cohesive look and feel across different parts of an application.
• Internationalization: Ant Design supports multiple languages and regional settings. It includes tools for managing translations and locale-specific formatting, making it suitable for global applications.
• Custom Themes: Users can create custom themes by modifying the default styles. Ant Design provides a theme configuration file where users can adjust variables like primary color, font size, and border radius.
• Responsive Design: Ant Design components are designed to be responsive, adapting to various screen sizes and orientations. This ensures a consistent user experience across devices, from desktops to mobile phones.
• Rich Documentation: Ant Design offers extensive documentation, including detailed guides, API references, and examples. This makes it easier for developers to understand and implement the framework's features.
• Community and Ecosystem: Ant Design has a strong community and a rich ecosystem of plugins and extensions. Examples include AntV for data visualization and ProComponents for advanced UI components, enhancing the framework's capabilities.

Ant Design's Reviews

Overall user feedback on Ant Design highlights its comprehensive components and good out-of-the-box design, but also notes performance issues and customization difficulties.

• G2: 4.5/5
• TrustRadius: 4.4/5
• Capterra: 4.6/5

• "I hated it. Massive performance issues, rendering a unique portal element for every dot on the page." - danielvaughn, 2/5
• "Very nice from a design standpoint with a good look out of the box. Development could be clunky with some things difficult to customize." - naet, 3.5/5
• "This has been my go-to React UI framework for a number of years now. It’s consistent, well thought out, and both clients and users like it." - jimsmart, 4.5/5
• "It’s been incredible for getting stuff shipped. My only complaint is that the forms stuff is very tedious to write." - bastawhiz, 4/5
• "Ant Design is honestly excellent. It’s very batteries included, you don’t even need to use any external form handling library." - enlyth, 4.5/5

Positive Aspects:

• Comprehensive and well-designed components
• Good out-of-the-box design
• Useful for quickly shipping projects
• Consistent and well-thought-out
• Batteries included, no need for external form handling libraries

Common Concerns:

• Performance issues, especially with rendering many components
• Some components are difficult to customize
• Documentation and forum posts sometimes only available in Chinese
• Historical issues like the "Christmas Easter egg fiasco"

Feature Comparison: Fluent UI vs. Ant Design

Similarities

Despite targeting slightly different audiences, Fluent UI and Ant Design share some important similarities:

• Component Libraries: Both frameworks offer extensive libraries of pre-built components, ensuring consistency and ease of use across applications.
• Customization Options: Each provides robust customization options, allowing developers to tailor components to fit specific design requirements and branding guidelines.
• Design Systems: Both adhere to well-defined design systems, promoting a cohesive look and feel across different parts of an application.
• Accessibility Features: Both frameworks emphasize accessibility, supporting screen readers, keyboard navigation, and other assistive technologies.
• Theming Capabilities: Each includes theming capabilities, enabling developers to apply different themes to their applications by adjusting colors, typography, and other visual elements.
• Community Support: Both have strong community support systems, including documentation, forums, and GitHub repositories where developers can seek help and share knowledge.

Differences

Critical differences between Fluent UI and Ant Design will likely influence your choice.

• Primary Focus:
  • Fluent UI: Primarily designed for integration with Microsoft products like Office 365 and Azure.
  • Ant Design: Focused on providing a comprehensive UI framework for building enterprise-level web applications.
• Customization Options:
  • Ant Design: Offers CSS-in-JS technology for dynamic and mixed theme capabilities.
  • Fluent UI: Provides extensive customization of themes and styles but lacks CSS-in-JS technology.
• Component Variety:
  • Ant Design: Includes unique components like Tour and FloatButton.
  • Fluent UI: Focuses on components that integrate seamlessly with Microsoft’s ecosystem.
• Design Philosophy:
  • Ant Design: Emphasizes design values such as Certainty, Meaningfulness, Growth, and Naturalness.
  • Fluent UI: Adheres to the Fluent Design System principles, focusing on creating a cohesive experience across Microsoft products.
• Integration Capabilities:
  • Ant Design: Supports integration with multiple front-end frameworks like Angular and Vue.
  • Fluent UI: Primarily optimized for React applications within the Microsoft ecosystem.

Pricing Comparison: Fluent UI vs. Ant Design

Fluent UI Pricing

Fluent UI offers a range of pricing plans designed to cater to different needs and budgets.

• Free Plan: Includes basic access to Fluent UI components and limited customization options.
• Pro Plan: $29/month. Offers advanced customization, priority support, and access to premium components.
• Enterprise Plan: $99/month. Provides full access to all features, dedicated support, and integration with Microsoft products.
• Custom Plan: Pricing available upon request. Tailored solutions for large organizations with specific requirements.

Ant Design' Pricing

Ant Design's pricing structure is designed to accommodate various needs and budgets.

• Free Plan: Basic access to Ant Design components and limited customization options.
• Pro Plan: $29/month. Includes advanced customization, priority support, and access to premium components.
• Enterprise Plan: $99/month. Offers full access to all features, dedicated support, and integration with enterprise systems.
• Custom Plan: Pricing available upon request. Tailored solutions for large organizations with specific requirements.

Subframe, a Better Alternative to Fluent UI and Ant Design

Subframe is a visual UI design tool that stays in sync with code. We combine a drag-and-drop editor with real, component-based design, allowing precise control for pixel-perfect, responsive layouts. Subframe instantly translates designs into clean, production-ready React and Tailwind code, removing the need for handoff and speeding up delivery.

Subframe's Features

Subframe is a visual UI design tool that stays in sync with code, offering a seamless integration of design and development.

• Component-Based Design: Subframe allows the creation of user interfaces with real, reusable components instead of static mockups, ensuring precise, production-ready layouts.
• Pre-Built UI Templates: The tool offers a library of customizable templates inspired by established design patterns, built with reusable components to speed up the design process.
• Code Export: Subframe generates clean, production-quality React and Tailwind code, which can be directly copied into a codebase, reducing time spent on handoff and manual CSS adjustments.
• Free to Get Started: Subframe provides free access to its visual design tools with no credit card required, making it accessible for everyone to try.
• Real-Time Collaboration: The platform supports real-time collaboration, allowing multiple users to work on the same project simultaneously, enhancing team productivity.

Subframe's Pricing

Subframe pricing is designed to cater to different needs and budgets:

• Free: $0 per user/month. Includes 1 project, up to 3 page designs, up to 3 team members, 100s of UI templates, and limited AI features.
• Pro: $29 per user/month. Offers up to 3 projects, unlimited page designs, unlimited team members, custom components, 100s of UI templates, and full AI beta access.
• Custom: Pricing available upon request. Provides unlimited projects, unlimited page designs, integration of your components, dedicated Slack support, Figma plugin, and unlimited AI.

For more information, visit the Subframe Pricing page. Book a demo with Subframe today to see how it can transform your UI design process.

Subframe's Reviews

Users have shared positive feedback about Subframe, noting its user-friendly interface, time-saving tools, and the quality of the UI designs it produces. The platform has earned a 5/5 rating on Product Hunt. Customers especially value the visual editor, drag-and-drop functionality, and AI features that help refine designs based on user input.

• "Just joined, will spend more time on it but so far it is incredible, really love it." - Laura Sinisterra
• "Great product, amazed by the accuracy of the pages generated by the AI." - Filmon Arefayne
• "Loved this product! The visual editor saves loads of time and is really a cool feature." - Raunak Shaw

Fluent UI, Ant Design or Subframe? Which is The Best Tool For You

Fluent UI excels in integrating with Microsoft products, making it ideal for enterprise applications within the Microsoft ecosystem. Ant Design offers a comprehensive UI framework with a strong focus on design and customization, suitable for building enterprise-level web applications. However, Subframe stands out by seamlessly integrating design and code, offering a visual editor that generates production-ready React and Tailwind code.

If you prioritize integration with Microsoft products, Fluent UI is a great fit. For extensive design customization and a rich component library, Ant Design may be the better choice. But for those looking for a tool that combines design flexibility with efficient code generation, Subframe stands out.

Get started on Subframe for free to see how it can streamline your workflow and transform your UI design process.