# MDB UI Kit: Material Design on Top of Bootstrap 5, Without jQuery > MDB UI Kit (mdbootstrap/mdb-ui-kit) layers Material Design styling and 700+ components over Bootstrap 5 with plain JavaScript. It installs by zip, npm or cdnjs, and package.json declares version 9.3.0. **mdbootstrap/mdb-ui-kit** — Bootstrap 5 & Material Design UI KIT - Repository: https://github.com/mdbootstrap/mdb-ui-kit - Website: https://mdbootstrap.com/docs/standard/ - Stars: 24,252 · Forks: 3,434 - Language: SCSS - License: NOASSERTION - Published: 2026-09-21 · Updated: 2026-09-21 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/mdbootstrap-mdb-ui-kit ## The gap MDB UI Kit fills between Bootstrap 5 and Material Design Bootstrap 5 gives you a grid, utilities and a set of components styled in Bootstrap's own visual language. Material Design gives you a different one: elevation, ripples, filled and outlined text fields, floating labels. Teams that want the second look on top of the first usually end up hand-writing CSS overrides for every form control, which is tedious and drifts as the framework updates. MDB UI Kit is that layer, packaged. The README describes it as "Bootstrap 5 UI KIT - 700+ components, plain JavaScript, MIT license, simple installation" and lists the selling points as 700+ UI components, free templates, a one-minute installation, plain JavaScript that also works with jQuery, and an MIT license for personal and commercial use. The audience is front-end developers and designers building marketing sites, admin panels and templates who want Bootstrap's class names to keep working underneath a Material skin. The repository itself is SCSS-first, with css/, js/, src/, img/ and an index.html at the top level. That layout matters: the compiled output is what you consume, and the source is what the project builds from. ## How the kit is structured: compiled CSS and JS next to SCSS sources The package is published as mdb-ui-kit. Its package.json sets "type": "module", points "main" at ./js/mdb.umd.min.js and "module" at ./js/mdb.es.min.js, and declares version 9.3.0. So there are two JavaScript entry points: a UMD bundle for script tags and older bundlers, and an ES module build for modern toolchains. The css/ directory holds the stylesheets the README's CDN instructions refer to, and src/ holds the SCSS the stylesheets compile from. That split is the whole architecture. There is no runtime framework, no virtual DOM, no build step required to use the compiled files. You include a stylesheet and a script, then write Bootstrap-style markup with MDB class names. The README's demo section points at components such as the carousel and buttons, each documented on its own page under mdbootstrap.com/docs/standard/components/. The trade-off is visible in the same structure. Because the styling lives in SCSS that compiles to a single stylesheet, customising deeply means either overriding with more specific selectors or rebuilding from src/. The README does not document a supported SCSS variable map or a partial-import strategy for trimming unused components. ## Installing MDB UI Kit with npm, cdnjs or a zip The README points to a getting-started page and says installation is available "via .zip, npm or cdnjs", with separate instructions for Webpack. It does not print the commands in the repository README, so the exact install line has to come from that page. What the repository does confirm is the package name and the version you will resolve: package.json names the package mdb-ui-kit and declares version 9.3.0, with "main": "./js/mdb.umd.min.js" and "module": "./js/mdb.es.min.js". Those two entry points are the whole integration surface. A bundler that understands the "module" field will pick up ./js/mdb.es.min.js; a script tag or an older toolchain will use the UMD file at ./js/mdb.umd.min.js. The README does not publish a pinned cdnjs URL in the repository text, so take that path from the installation page rather than guessing a filename. For the Webpack option, the README says it is "useful for experienced developers" and enables bundling, unit testing, code formatting, linting and Sass support; the setup steps live on the linked page, not in the README. A first real use is the pattern the README's demo section shows: a Bootstrap grid with MDB component classes on top. The README illustrates buttons and a carousel this way, each with its own documentation page. The README's own description of the carousel is a slideshow component for cycling through elements, images or slides of text, and the buttons page covers custom button styles for actions in forms and dialogs with multiple sizes and states. Both follow the same markup-plus-classes model, and the buttons page is the smallest thing you can check after installing. ## Where MDB UI Kit stops being the right tool The license is the first limitation, and it is not a small one. The README calls the project MIT, and the badge in the README links to a License.pdf. But package.json declares "license": "SEE LICENSE IN " and the repository metadata reports NOASSERTION. Those signals disagree with the README's plain "MIT license" line. NOASSERTION means the file could not be matched to a recognised license template, not that the project is proprietary, but it also means you cannot treat the README's one-word claim as the whole story. Read License.txt before shipping anything commercial. The second limitation is the free tier boundary. The README calls MDB "a collection of free for personal & commercial use Bootstrap templates, themes, design tools & resources", and the homepage is mdbootstrap.com/docs/standard/. The repository is the UI kit, not the whole product line, and the README repeatedly routes readers to the website for docs, tutorials, freebies and hosting. If your team needs everything in one repository with no external documentation dependency, this is not that shape of project. The third is customisation depth. A design system that needs a different type scale, a different elevation model, or a component that MDB does not ship will fight the compiled stylesheet. The repository layout suggests rebuilding from src/, but the README does not describe that workflow, so you would be working it out from the SCSS itself. Finally, plain JavaScript means no framework bindings. If your application is React, Vue or Angular, MDB gives you markup and scripts, not components. You will wrap them yourself. ## MDB UI Kit compared with Bootstrap 5 and Material UI The closest alternative is Bootstrap 5 on its own. The difference is entirely in the styling layer: Bootstrap 5 gives you its own component look and a large utility system, while MDB UI Kit keeps the Bootstrap 5 grid and utilities and replaces the visual treatment with Material Design. If your team already knows Bootstrap class names, the migration cost is low. If you want Bootstrap's default look, MDB adds nothing but weight. The other obvious comparison is Material UI, which implements Material Design as React components rather than as CSS classes on plain HTML. That is a different integration model: Material UI owns your component tree and expects React; MDB UI Kit expects markup and a stylesheet, and works in any page that can load CSS and JavaScript. Choose based on your rendering model, not on which looks more Material. A server-rendered page or a static template will find MDB UI Kit far easier to drop in; a React application will find Material UI's component API more natural, and will have to hand-wrap every MDB component otherwise. A third option is writing the Material overrides yourself on top of Bootstrap 5. That is the cheapest in dependencies and the most expensive in maintenance, because every Bootstrap release can move the ground under your overrides. MDB UI Kit takes that maintenance on itself, which is the actual thing you are buying. ## Release cadence, upgrades and what the license file means for you The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-03-24. Recent releases are 9.3.0 on 2025-12-08, 9.2.0 on 2025-09-01 and 9.1.0 on 2025-06-16, which is roughly a quarterly rhythm across those three. package.json currently declares 9.3.0, so the published package and the latest tagged release line up. Upgrade cost depends on how you consume it. If you import the compiled CSS and JS, a version bump is a dependency change plus a visual regression pass, because the Material styling is applied through class names that Bootstrap also uses. If you build from src/, the SCSS is yours to reconcile. The README does not document a migration guide or a breaking-change policy between major versions, so treat a major bump as a manual review. On licensing: the README states MIT and links a License.pdf, while package.json says "SEE LICENSE IN " and the repository reports NOASSERTION. This is not legal advice, and it is not a conclusion about the project's intent. It is a concrete instruction: open License.txt, read the terms that apply to your use, and if the answer is not clear, get a lawyer rather than relying on a README badge. The gap between a badge and a machine-readable license field is exactly the kind of thing that surfaces during an acquisition or a compliance audit, not during development. ## Conclusion Adopt MDB UI Kit if you already ship Bootstrap 5 markup and want Material Design surfaces without rewriting your grid or swapping frameworks. Skip it if you need a machine-readable open source license, a framework with published component bindings, or a component set you can patch yourself: package.json defers to License.txt and the repository reports NOASSERTION, which does not match the README's MIT badge. Verify the terms in License.txt and the exact install path on the getting-started page before you commit a production build to it. ## FAQ ### Can I use MDB UI Kit for free? The README says the kit is free for personal and commercial use and labels it MIT. The repository metadata reports NOASSERTION and package.json points to License.txt, so read that file before relying on the README's wording. ### What does a UI kit like MDB UI Kit include? The README lists 700+ UI components, free templates, documentation with examples, tutorials, plain JavaScript that also works with jQuery, and a per-component documentation page such as the carousel and buttons pages. ### Is Bootstrap outdated in 2026? MDB UI Kit is built on Bootstrap 5 and its most recent release is 9.3.0, dated 2025-12-08, so the project's own answer is that Bootstrap 5 is still the foundation it ships on. The README does not discuss Bootstrap's general relevance beyond that. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/mdbootstrap/mdb-ui-kit/issues) - [mdbootstrap/mdb-ui-kit on GitHub](https://github.com/mdbootstrap/mdb-ui-kit) - [Project website](https://mdbootstrap.com/docs/standard/) - [README](https://github.com/mdbootstrap/mdb-ui-kit/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/mdbootstrap/mdb-ui-kit/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/mdbootstrap-mdb-ui-kit