When it comes to building sleek, modern, and visually appealing web applications, icons play a crucial role. Whether you’re building a landing page, a dashboard, or an e-commerce platform, the right icons can make your UI intuitive and engaging. In this post, we’ll dive into the top 10 icon libraries you can use in your Next.js app to enhance its design.

1. Heroicons 🦸‍♂️

Heroicons is a collection of free, beautifully crafted SVG icons by the creators of Tailwind CSS. It's perfect for building minimalist, modern UIs.

Installation

npm install @heroicons/react

Usage Example

import { BeakerIcon } from '@heroicons/react/solid';

export default function Example() {
  return <BeakerIcon className="h-5 w-5 text-blue-500" />;
}

2. React Icons 🔗

React Icons provides a variety of icon packs from popular icon sets like Font Awesome, Material Icons, and more. It's highly customizable and works seamlessly with Next.js.

Installation

npm install react-icons

Usage Example

import { FaBeer } from 'react-icons/fa';

export default function Example() {
  return <FaBeer size={30} color="orange" />;
}

3. Font Awesome 🌟

Font Awesome is one of the most popular icon libraries, offering thousands of icons. It’s great for adding solid, brand, and custom icons to your Next.js app.

Installation

npm install @fortawesome/react-fontawesome

Usage Example

import { FontAwesomeIcon } from '@fortawesome/react-fontawesome';
import { faCoffee } from '@fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons';

export default function Example() {
  return <FontAwesomeIcon icon={faCoffee} size="2x" />;
}

4. Material Icons 🖼️

Google’s Material Design Icons are widely used in apps for their clean, modern look. With Material Icons, you can give your app that Android-native feel.

Installation

npm install @mui/icons-material

Usage Example

import HomeIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Home';

export default function Example() {
  return <HomeIcon fontSize="large" color="primary" />;
}

5. Feather Icons 🪶

Feather Icons are open-source and lightweight, making them perfect for performance-focused applications. They offer a clean and minimalist design.

Installation

npm install react-feather

Usage Example

import { Camera } from 'react-feather';

export default function Example() {
  return <Camera color="green" size={40} />;
}

6. Bootstrap Icons 🏆

For those who love Bootstrap, you can integrate its icons into your Next.js app seamlessly. Bootstrap Icons provide a comprehensive set of icons to match the Bootstrap UI framework.

Installation

npm install bootstrap-icons

Usage Example

import 'bootstrap-icons/font/bootstrap-icons.css';

export default function Example() {
  return <i className="bi bi-alarm" style={{ fontSize: '2rem' }}></i>;
}

7. Ionicons 🌐

Ionicons are beautifully crafted and were originally designed for use with Ionic apps. However, they work just as well in any Next.js project.

Installation

npm install ionicons

Usage Example

import { IonIcon } from 'react-ion-icon';

export default function Example() {
  return <IonIcon name="heart" size="large" />;
}

8. Eva Icons 🦁

Eva Icons are a set of 480+ beautifully crafted icons designed for more expressive user interfaces. It’s a great fit if you're looking for icons with a bit of flair.

Installation

npm install @uiw/react-eva-icons

Usage Example

import { Icon } from '@uiw/react-eva-icons';

export default function Example() {
  return <Icon name="bell" fill="#f00" size="large" />;
}

9. Tabler Icons 📊

Tabler Icons offer over 800 SVG icons focused on simplicity and crispness. It’s a great choice for dashboards or admin panels.

Installation

npm install @tabler/icons-react

Usage Example

import { IconHome } from '@tabler/icons-react';

export default function Example() {
  return <IconHome size={30} stroke={1.5} />;
}

10. Ant Design Icons 🏗️

Ant Design is known for its enterprise-grade UI components, and its icon set is no exception. It’s perfect for complex applications with a need for a robust, versatile icon library.

Installation

npm install @ant-design/icons

Usage Example

import { SmileOutlined } from '@ant-design/icons';

export default function Example() {
  return <SmileOutlined style={{ fontSize: '24px', color: '#08c' }} />;
}

📊 Performance Considerations

When using icon libraries in Next.js, it's essential to optimize performance by ensuring you're only importing the icons you need. Libraries like React Icons or Heroicons allow you to tree-shake unused icons, minimizing the bundle size.

Example: Tree Shaking with React Icons

import { FaBeer } from 'react-icons/fa'; // Only imports FaBeer icon, reducing bundle size

export default function Example() {
  return <FaBeer size={30} />;
}

🚀 Conclusion

These 10 icon libraries will help you design stunning, intuitive UIs for your Next.js app in 2024. Each library brings its own unique style and set of features, so you can pick the one that best fits your project. From minimalist to bold and expressive icons, there’s something for every use case.

Happy coding! ✨