KendoUI vs Jquery/Bootstrap Design decision for Asp.Net MVC application

Question

I am in the process of evaluating the above technologies for a new ASP.Net MVC4 web site. We would like to have a responsive web site to support desktop and mobiles.

KendoUI

I am not sure whether the existing MVC controls are responsive. There are different set of controls for mobiles. Does it mean i need to maintain 2 projects for Desktop and Mobile?

Our company has already purchased KendoUI (for some other project)

Jquery/Bootstrap

As most of the Bootstrap controls are responsive, it looks like a better candidate for us and it is free

I have some experience with Bootstrap resposnsive web sites and I know sometimes it could be a pain to overwrite styles with media queries. Can we do the same with KendoUI? Does it need the same amount of effort as per Bootstrap?

If anyone has any prior experience with KendoUI for a responsive web site please share..

Edit

When i browse the responsive DEMOs of KendoUI site it gave me below message.

Kendo UI Mobileis fully supported only in WebKit based browsers and IE10. Please use a compatible desktop browser or open the examples in a mobile WebKit based browser or Windows Phone.

Does it mean if I create the site with KendoUI responsive controls, it will not work in IE9 and Firfox (is not WebKit based) ?

Solution 1

Well, why not both?

There is this 2012 KendoUI blog post showing both frameworks working really well together. I'm still learning both tools, but I intend to use a similar approach.

Hope that helps.

Solution 2

As of the 2013 Q3 release, Kendo UI has integrated with Bootstrap 3 as well as make some of their controls (ie, Grid) mobile friendly. So I would say use both!

You can read more about the release on their blog here: http://www.kendoui.com/blogs/teamblog/posts/13-11-20/new-in-kendo-ui-q3-2013.aspx

and play with a demo of the Bootstrap integration here: http://demos.kendoui.com/bootstrap/ (be sure to check it out on a mobile device).

Also, as far as I know, Kendo still works with IE 9+ (maybe 8 to an extent also) and with Firefox.

Solution 3

Thanks @mmillican and @paulo.vin for the answers. This is what we end up with. I know KendoUI guys is not going to like this, but it is what it is..

1. Found using bootstrap is very convenient. We dont have a dedicated UI designer, so designing the site was very easy with the bootstrap. And also its javascript controls are very good. And it supports IE8 as well.

2. Installed the latest KendoUI and tried to use the grid control. Unfortunately it was a big pain to get it working according to the way want it. Mainly, with styling. So I have to get rid of it moved all the grids to DataTables.net which is one of the best javascript based grid control. I can certainly recommend it.

3. At the end of the day I got only the Kendo Date picker in my project.

Personally i think it is still not the best time to try blending both in one project. Considering the cost, it is best to go for Bootstrap and other freely available components. But if your organisation has already invest in Kendo, make sure you have a proper training from a Kendo expert, otherwise it will be lot of time consuming to fix those small issues like changing background color, width of a column, etc.

Comments

[Tom McDonald]

OK, I'll give the obvious answer, because learning both is 2x as much stuff to learn. Am I wrong?