Last Updated on March 8, 2026
Vanilla Framework is an extensible CSS framework, built using Sass and is designed to be used either directly or by using themes to extend or supplement its patterns.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Multiple ways to display code using the standard HTML elements: Inline, Block, Code snippet, Code snippet with icon, Numbered code snippet, and Dropdowns.
- Uses Normalize to reset default browser styling on page elements. This helps remove any quirks or nuances specific to certain browsers before further styling is layered on top.
- Supports client-side theming based on CSS properties (instead of previously used build-time SCSS based theming). Themes supported:
- light (default, or provided by
is-lightclass). - paper (provided by
is-paperclass, recommended for websites) which extents the light theme, but uses a light grey background. - dark (provided by
is-darkclass).
- light (default, or provided by
- Patterns.
Website: github.com/canonical/vanilla-framework
Support:
Developer: Canonical Ltd
License: GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0
Vanilla Framework is written in SCSS. Learn CSS with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| CSS Front-end Frameworks | |
|---|---|
| Tailwind CSS | Utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom user interfaces |
| Bulma | Modern CSS framework that just works |
| Foundation | Advanced responsive front-end framework |
| Bootstrap | Sleek, intuitive, and powerful mobile front-end framework |
| Ulkit | Lightweight and modular front-end framework |
| Primer | GitHub’s design system |
| Cirrus | SCSS framework for the modern web |
| Fomantic-UI | Community fork of Semantic-UI |
| Vanilla | Extensible CSS framework, built using Sass |
| Materialize | Modern responsive front-end framework based on Material Design |
| Blaze | Framework-free UI toolkit |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |