Ask HN: Picking a good web UI foundation for a desktop SaaS

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15933696
by intrasight • 9 years ago
2 0 9 years ago

I am about to embark on a rewrite of a SaaS desktop web app.

I have seen here some good discussion on the merits of React and Vue and Angular.

But let's assume that I am somewhat indifferent to that selection and just want to get started using as a basis a good "admin portal template" (not sure if there's a better/standard name for these things). By "good" I mean a) good design aesthetic, b) broad and deep so the template likely covers common UI tasks, c) some established community around it.

I can say that I'm completely indifferent on the JS framework. I'd say my ordered preference at this point is Vue, React, Angular. But I'm going to put on my "business" hat in place of my "opinionated developer" hat, and look at the "end result".

I have found several that I think satisfy a, b, and c above, and I list them below. There are probably other that I should look at, so please add links in your comments.

Finally, there are hundreds of Bootstrap-based admin portal templates out there for sale. While I've used Bootstrap on some projects, I've never been particularly keen about their design aesthetic.

In no particular order:

A. Ant Design (https://ant.design/)

example admin template

https://preview.pro.ant.design/#/dashboard/analysis

Looks very polished and behaves well. But my Chinese is rusty.

B. Grommet (http://grommet.io/)

Example admin portal

http://ferret.grommet.io/dashboard

C. Semantic-UI (https://react.semantic-ui.com/introduction)

example admin template:

http://preview.themeforest.net/item/stagb-semanticui-admin-template/full_screen_preview/19444852

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