twitter-bootstrap vs jquery-mobile

I'm wondering if someone can give some advice as to which is 'better'. Twitter-bootstrap or JQuery mobile?

Thanks, -peter

I don't know if "better" is something you can answer since they serve different purposes. Bootstrap is great all-purpose CSS library whereas jQueryMobile is closer to a framework. Meaning jQueryMobile doesn't just make your pages look nice- it gives a lot of mobile oriented features such as- swipe-events, page transitions, allows for single page applications (since it will only show a single div with data-role='page' at a time), AJAX preload and history API, and lots of touch friendly components/widgets. Whereas bootstrap is foremost a CSS library mostly for desktop but works on mobile as well especially since 2.0 comes with media queries built in. Bootstrap will not help you with touch friendly lists, checkboxes, select menu's, etc.

One more thing to point out, jQueryMobile takes your markup and dresses it with all sorts of pretty stuff using JavaScript. Bootstrap has some javascript, but only for optional components, the rest is CSS.

So to answer IMHO- if you're a making a web application that you explicitly plan on using primarily on mobile devices go with jQueryMobile; Anything else go with Bootstrap- it's really quite awesome.

jQuery mobile != twitter bootstrap. Twitter bootstrap is used to create responsive layouts [a single CSS can work on big as well as small screen size]. jQuery mobile is intended for mobile development. So if you develop a site using jQuery mobile won't give a good layout consistency in all desktop browsers.

While I agree that Twitter Bootstrap != jQuery Mobile, you can develop mobile sites with Bootstrap. After spending the last couple months developing a mobile site using jQuery Mobile, my conclusion is this:

The concept behind jQuery Mobile is perfect. The "page" concept integrates very well with server side technologies (ASP.Net MVC in my case). It allows you to develop pages as individual files, rendered mostly on the server, as you're already used to doing and probably desire to do.

However, in its current state, it can get very slow and very buggy if you try to do too much with it. I've run into problem after problem with it on my project.

So I'd say, if your site isn't too complicated (e.g. no swiping, no wizards), then go with jQuery Mobile. Otherwise, think about waiting for the project to mature. It's almost there.

I think the main differences are apparent by how the two projects identify themselves:

Bootstrap: "Sleek, intuitive, and powerful front-end framework for faster and easier web development."

jQuery Mobile: "Touch-Optimized Web Framework for Smartphones & Tablets."

Both frameworks are aiming at meeting different needs and accomplishing different things. I've used both of them in separate projects and each of them have strengths and weaknesses, but it would be a disservice to both to directly compare them. It's our job as programmers/designers/engineers to decide the goal for your project and pick the best tool for the job.

It depends on what you are going to do with it. I prefer Bootstrap in most cases, because i like the base css plus you can compile with responsive.less so you got a mobile version too. Iam much faster when prototyping with bootstrap because it is very loose coupled and just plain markup (except for the plugins, those are great too).