Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Material Icons VS Nucleo

Compare Material Icons VS Nucleo and see what are their differences

Material Icons logo Material Icons

Google Fonts now supports icons

Nucleo logo Nucleo

Commercial vector icons and accompanying apps to manage and customize them.
  • Material Icons Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-05-22
  • Nucleo Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-06

Material Icons features and specs

  • Extensive Collection
    Material Icons offer a comprehensive set of over 2,000 icons, covering a wide range of use cases and design needs.
  • Consistency
    The icons are designed following Google's Material Design guidelines, ensuring visual and functional consistency across different platforms and applications.
  • Scalability
    Being vector-based, these icons can be scaled to any size without losing quality, making them versatile for various screen resolutions.
  • Ease of Integration
    Material Icons are easy to integrate into projects through the use of the Google Fonts API, CSS, or direct downloading and inclusion in codebases.
  • Customizability
    Icons can be customized in terms of color, size, and other styles to fit the specific needs of a project.
  • Free and Open Source
    Material Icons are free to use under the Apache License 2.0, making them accessible for both personal and commercial projects.

Possible disadvantages of Material Icons

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For designers not familiar with Material Design, there may be a learning curve to understanding and effectively implementing the design principles.
  • Design Limitations
    While Material Icons are highly versatile, their design is rooted in Material Design principles, which may not fit every brand or aesthetic.
  • Performance Overhead
    Including a large number of icons through the Google Fonts API can result in additional HTTP requests, potentially affecting page load times.
  • Less Unique
    Given their popularity, Material Icons are widely used, which may lead to a lack of uniqueness in the design of applications using them.
  • Inconsistent Updates
    While Google does update the icon set, updates can be infrequent or may not include all needed icons for newer features or design trends.

Nucleo features and specs

  • Extensive Icon Library
    Nucleo offers a vast collection of customizable icons, providing users with numerous options for various design needs.
  • Customization
    Users can easily customize the icons by changing colors, sizes, and other properties to match their design requirements.
  • User-friendly Interface
    The app provides an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface, making it simple for users to find and use icons quickly.
  • Organizational Tools
    Nucleo includes organizational features like tagging and categorization, which help users manage their icon collections efficiently.
  • Offline Access
    Nucleo allows users to access and manage their icon library without requiring an internet connection.
  • Compatibility
    Nucleo supports multiple design tools and platforms, making it versatile and adaptable for various workflows.
  • One-time Purchase
    Nucleo is available for a one-time purchase, avoiding recurring subscription costs for users.

Possible disadvantages of Nucleo

  • Cost
    The one-time purchase cost can be a barrier for some users, especially those who might not need an extensive icon library.
  • Learning Curve
    While the interface is intuitive, new users may need some time to understand all the features and customization options available.
  • Limited Free Version
    The free version offers limited access to icons and features, which may not be sufficient for all users' needs.
  • No Cloud Sync
    Nucleo currently does not offer cloud synchronization, limiting the ability to easily share and sync libraries across multiple devices.
  • Restricted to Icons
    Nucleo focuses solely on icons, so users needing other design assets may need additional tools or resources.
  • Platform Availability
    Nucleo is primarily available for macOS and Windows, which might not be ideal for users on other operating systems.

Material Icons videos

NOU - Icon Pack Review Material Icons Best Icon Pack

Nucleo videos

STM32 Nucleo-64 Development Board Review and Getting Started

More videos:

  • Review - STM32 Nucleo Boards
  • Review - Product overview of Nucleo-32 board for STM32

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Material Icons and Nucleo)
Design Tools
71 71%
29% 29
Web Icons
36 36%
64% 64
Icon Fonts
0 0%
100% 100
Photos & Graphics
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Material Icons and Nucleo

Material Icons Reviews

10 Best Fontello Alternatives 2021
Fontello doesn’t have this capability so this makes Material Icons the more superior tool. Also, the Material Icons font catalog supports over 135 languages—a feature most of its rivals including Fontello cannot do.
Top FontAwesome alternatives to use on your websites
If you are familiar with Google Fonts already, then you will be familiar with Google's Material Icons. You can include Material Icons in the exact same way that you would include a Google Font family on your webpage.

Nucleo Reviews

12 Best Free FontAwesome Alternatives in 2023 
And how can we miss out on Nucleo when talking about the best font awesome alternatives? Nucleo is an absolutely beautiful library that consists of 32995 icons. It has six grid styles including 12, 16, 24, 32, 48, and 64 pixels and the three styles of icons include outline, fill, and color. Here, you can find 3304 unique symbols organized in 40 categories.
Source: lineicons.com
10 Best Fontello Alternatives 2021
Nucleo icons can be dragged and dropped into your design or developer tools of choice, thereby speeding up your workflow and boosting productivity. You can import your favorite icons into the Nucleo app and organize them into collections.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Material Icons seems to be a lot more popular than Nucleo. While we know about 67 links to Material Icons, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Nucleo. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Material Icons mentions (67)

  • Best Icon Font Libraries for Developers
    By adding Material Design Icons to your project, you can have a clean and professional look that is in line with current design standards. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Best Flutter Icon Libraries in 2025
    It is a collection of icons provided by Google Fonts, available on their website. This set is the go-to for developers who want to maintain consistency with Google’s Material Design principles. With a wide range of icons, this library is perfect for creating a polished, cohesive app interface. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • The Best 100 Free UI/UX Resources for Every Designer & Developer
    Material Icons Fonts.google.com/icons Google’s open-source icon set for Material Design. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • ✨10 Stunning Icon Libraries to Check Out (That Are Free and Open-Source) 🚀
    Website: Material Symbols GitHub Repo: GitHub Repo. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Ask HN: Which SVG icon library are you using and why?
    Https://fonts.google.com/icons My preference for new projects is currently swaying towards Google's Material library as its just so easy and fast to use. Nevertheless Fontawesome has been a staple for me for the last several years! - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
View more

Nucleo mentions (3)

  • What icon library do you use for front-end UIs?
    I use Nucleo to manage my own icon sets. From Google to fontawesome to my own custom made vectors. Then you create "projects" and put whatever icons you want in it, then export the iconfont set. Source: over 3 years ago
  • I made a free dashboard template using Tailwind CSS and React
    They come from Nucleo App (https://nucleoapp.com/). Source: about 4 years ago
  • Custom icons in the WordPress block editor
    I'm a big fan of Nucleo icons, some of which I already use in my WordPress theme Garrick, but I've thought for a while now that it would be nice to have access to more icons as inline elements -- not just outside the editor or as block-level elements. This plugin fills that gap nicely, but it comes with Font Awesome 4 out of the box. Fortunately, it also provides some filters that allow for overriding this default... - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Material Icons and Nucleo, you can also consider the following products

Feather Icons - Simply beautiful open source icons

Flaticon - A database of free vector icons.

Font Awesome - Font Awesome makes it easy to add vector icons and social logos to your website. And version 5 is redesigned and built from the ground up!

Heroicons - Beautiful, free SVG icons from the makers of Tailwind CSS.

Icons8 - Free app for Mac & Windows already containing 39,800 icons. Allows to search and import icons…

Bootstrap Icons - Official open source SVG icon library for Bootstrap