Center an element in Bootstrap Navbar

Css Twitter Bootstrap Bootstrap 4 Navbar

Css Problem Overview

No matter what I try, I can't center something in Bootstrap navbar, any solutions for it?

I've tried adding a div, using margin:0 auto; or margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto;, used center-block class. Nothing works, why is so hard to achieve something so simple I can't understand, what I'm doing wrong?

Here's the current code :

<nav class="navbar navbar-fixed-top navbar-dark main-nav">
<div class="container">
    <ul class="nav navbar-nav pull-left">
        <li class="nav-item active">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Download</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Register</a>
        </li>
    </ul>

    <ul class="nav navbar-nav text-center">
        <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Website Name</a></li>
    </ul>

    <ul class="nav navbar-nav pull-right">
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Rates</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Help</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Contact</a>
        </li>
    </ul>
</div>

Css Solutions

Solution 1 - Css

Update Bootstrap 5 (2021)

The Navbar still uses flexbox so alignment works the same way as Bootstrap 4.

Update Bootstrap 4.1+

Bootstrap 4 the navbar now uses flexbox so the Website Name can be centered using mx-auto. The left and right side menus don't require floats.

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-md navbar-fixed-top navbar-dark bg-dark main-nav">
    <div class="container">
        <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
            <li class="nav-item active">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Home</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Download</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Register</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
        <ul class="nav navbar-nav mx-auto">
            <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Website Name</a></li>
        </ul>
        <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Rates</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Help</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Contact</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</nav>

Navbar center with mx-auto Demo

If the Navbar only has a single navbar-nav, then justify-content-center can also be used to center.

EDIT

In the solution above, the Website Name is centered relative to the left and right navbar-nav so if the width of these adjacent navs are different the Website Name is no longer centered.

To resolve this, one of the flexbox workarounds for absolute centering can be used...

Option 1 - Use position:absolute;

Since it's ok to use absolute positioning in flexbox, one option is to use this on the item to be centered.

.abs-center-x {
    position: absolute;
    left: 50%;
    transform: translateX(-50%);
}

Navbar center with absolute position Demo

Option 2 - Use flexbox nesting

~~Finally, another option is to make the centered item also display:flexbox (using d-flex) and center justified. In this case each navbar component must have flex-grow:1~~

As of Bootstrap 4 Beta, the Navbar is now display:flex. Bootstrap 4.1.0 includes a new flex-fill class to make each nav section fill the width:

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-sm navbar-dark bg-dark main-nav">
    <div class="container justify-content-center">
        <ul class="nav navbar-nav flex-fill w-100 flex-nowrap">
            <li class="nav-item active">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Home</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Download</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Register</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">More</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
        <ul class="nav navbar-nav flex-fill justify-content-center">
            <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Center</a></li>
        </ul>
        <ul class="nav navbar-nav flex-fill w-100 justify-content-end">
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Help</a>
            </li>
            <li class="nav-item">
                <a class="nav-link" href="#">Contact</a>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</nav>

Navbar center with flexbox nesting Demo

Prior to Bootstrap 4.1.0 you can add the flex-fill class like this...

.flex-fill {
   flex:1
}

As of 4.1 flex-fill is included in Bootstrap.

Bootstrap 4 Navbar center demos
More centering demos
Center links on desktop, left align on mobile

Solution 2 - Css

In Bootstrap 4, there is a new utility known as .mx-auto. You just need to specify the width of the centered element.

Ref: http://v4-alpha.getbootstrap.com/utilities/spacing/#horizontal-centering

Diffferent from Bass Jobsen's answer, which is a relative center to the elements on both ends, the following example is absolute centered.

Here's the HTML:

<nav class="navbar bg-faded">
  <div class="container">
    <ul class="nav navbar-nav pull-sm-left">
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link 1</a>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link 2</a>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link 3</a>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link 4</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
    <ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-logo mx-auto">
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Brand</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
    <ul class="nav navbar-nav pull-sm-right">
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link 5</a>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link 6</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</nav>

And CSS:

.navbar-logo {
  width: 90px;
}

Solution 3 - Css

Try this.

.nav-tabs > li{
    float:none !important;
    display:inline-block !important;
}

.nav-tabs {
    text-align:center !important;
}

Solution 4 - Css

See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/14146967/1596547, now you can use:

<nav class="navbar navbar-light main-nav">
<div class="container text-xs-center">
    <ul class="nav navbar-nav pull-xs-left">
        <li class="nav-item active">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Download</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Register</a>
        </li>
    </ul>

    <ul class="nav navbar-nav" style="display: inline-block;">
        <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Website Name</a></li>
    </ul>

    <ul class="nav navbar-nav pull-xs-right">
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Rates</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Help</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
            <a class="nav-link" href="#">Contact</a>
        </li>
    </ul>
</div>
</nav>

apply text-xs-center on your container and set display: inline-block; for your list.

Solution 5 - Css

I had a similar problem; the anchor text in my Bootstrap4 navbar wasn't centered. Simply added text-center in the anchor's class.

Solution 6 - Css

use mx-auto will do the job

<ul class="navbar-nav mx-auto">

Solution 7 - Css

make new style

.container {
    position: relative;
}
.center-nav {
    position: absolute;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    margin: 0 auto;
    width: auto;
    max-width: 200px;
    text-align: center;
}
.center-nav li{
  text-align: center;
  width:100%;
}

Replace website name UL with below

<ul class="nav navbar-nav center-nav">
        <li class="nav-item"><a class="nav-link" href="#">Website Name</a></li>
 </ul>

Hope this helps..

Solution 8 - Css

from the docs

> Navbars may contain bits of text with the help of .navbar-text. This class adjusts vertical alignment and horizontal spacing for strings of text.

i applied the .navbar-text class to my <li> element, so the result is

<li class="nav-item navbar-text">

this centers the links vertically with respect to my navbar-brand img

Solution 9 - Css

Why Not using bootstrap utilities. here is the code

    <nav class="navbar navbar-expand-md bg-light navbar-light fixed-top">
  <!-- Brand -->
  <a class="navbar-brand" href="#"><img src="your-logo"/></a>

  <!-- Toggler/collapsibe Button -->
  <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#collapsibleNavbar">
    <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
  </button>

  <!-- Navbar links -->
  <div class="collapse navbar-collapse mx-auto justify-content-md-center" id="collapsibleNavbar" >
    <ul class="navbar-nav col-md-auto">
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
      </li>
      <li class="nav-item">
        <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
      </li> 
    </ul>
  </div> 
</nav>

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	LuTz	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Css	Zim	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Css	Victor	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Css	Priya Rajaram	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Css	Bass Jobsen	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Css	cDub	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Css	Hezy Ziv	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Css	Ajay Makwana	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Css	austin	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Css	sam kh	View Answer on Stackoverflow