Useful Responsive CSS Grid Frameworks

Before responsive design came into the scene, companies created multiple versions of their websites for mobile users. Creating and maintaining a different website for each device is not practical and this is when responsive design approach saves the day.

Why to use a Responsive CSS Framework?

Every web developer at some point has created a set of base CSS files to be reused for multiple projects. Web design standards and browsers are constantly evolving and maintaining a custom framework becomes a task in itself.
CSS Frameworks offer a great starting point without having to re-invent the wheel. Being available for the general consumer, these are constantly updated and follow best practices. These frameworks would not only provide a default set of rules for your content display but would also make the content responsive based on screen size.

How to select a framework

If not more, then there might be at least a hundred different responsive CSS frameworks available. The general way in which most of these frameworks work is the same, however each one follows a different set of naming convention, file structure and rules. Understanding them is the key to successfully choosing and using them.
Before you pick a framework for your project, I would strongly recommend testing them for dummy projects as changing the frameworks for a completed website would be time consuming. Some of simple enough to understand and use within few minutes, but some like Twitter Bootstrap would take more time to learn.
There is no hard and fast rule to select the best framework at the end it would come down to which Responsive CSS framework you are most comfortable with. Every framework would have its pros and cons and 1 framework might not be the best solution for every single project.

Few things you can consider while selecting a frame are:

1. Learning Curve
The most important aspect in choosing a Responsive CSS framework would be to find the one you are comfortable with. A basic framework would be the fastest to learn and use but lack of features would mean additional work for larger websites.
2. Features & Performance
More features in a framework might affect its performance. A typical website might not require every single feature a framework offers. Hence it would be best to use different framework based on the requirements of each website.
3. Backward Compatibility
Framework is used to save time. Hence having a framework that is compatible on older browsers makes development even easier.
4. Customization
As mentioned in the above point, lot of features would affect performance. Hence being able to choose only certain components of a framework gives us more control. Twitter Bootstrap is one of the most feature rich CSS Frameworks available today but also offers a great customization option to be able to choose only required features.
5. Support & Maintenance
Another important aspect to consider would be how well a framework is maintained. As many frameworks are created by web developers on their own, if for any reason, they get busy or lose interest, you might have to continue improving the framework yourself or switch to another. This is no doubt true for every free product out there, but nonetheless is an important aspect to consider.
6. Online Community & Resources
Finally, to be able to make the maximum use of your chosen framework, the community and available resources for the framework would be crucial. E.g. for Twitter Bootstrap, you would many articles on how to use it as well as web based tools and ready made website templates.
In this article, my aim is to not cover all of the Responsive CSS frameworks out there, but only a few.