shouldiuse.io

VERDICT

Should I use Material Design?

Material Design 3 - Google's open-source design system, provides comprehensive guidelines, styles, & components to create user-friendly interfaces. - m3.material.io

Depends. Use it if you build Android apps or want free, battle-tested UI guidelines with a huge ecosystem. Skip it if brand differentiation matters — your product will look like every other Material app.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~14 public sources. Product is a free design system, not a paid SaaS — no vendor pricing, ratings, or support reviews exist for it; ecosystem libraries and plugins were assessed instead.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo evidence found
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Open Source

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Android app developers
  • Cross-platform teams wanting UI consistency
  • Startups needing free, accessible component guidelines
  • Designers prototyping with the Figma kit

Not for

  • Brands wanting a distinctive look — default output screams Google template
  • iOS-first products (use Apple's HIG instead)
  • Small sites where a basic template or no design system suffices
  • Teams with no design bandwidth to customize past the defaults

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Vet third-party plugins: Contact Form 7 Material Design plugin had a CSRF-to-XSS CVE

medium

Guidelines are free, but component libraries implementing them have paid tiers

medium

Legacy material-design-lite is flagged for maintenance/security concerns — avoid old versions

medium

Default look is instantly recognizable as Material; standing out takes real design effort

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Completely free and open-source — no licensing cost ever
  • Comprehensive guidelines, styles, and components for consistent interfaces
  • Massive ecosystem; 14,013 companies use it per TheirStack
  • Actively maintained and researched by Google, incl. Material 3 Expressive
  • Free Figma design kit for prototyping before committing

Cons

  • Critics say overuse made the web look generic
  • Material 3 aesthetics are polarizing; some designers find it ugly
  • More complex to implement than simpler design styles
  • Text field patterns heavily criticized by practitioners
  • Third-party plugins built on it have had security vulnerabilities

Sources & method

Analyzed 9/20/2026 - 10 sources - The design system itself is free guidelines, not runtime software — no direct CVEs. Vulnerabilities exist in third-party plugins implementing it.

official x2review x3security x3news x2
  • CVE-2025-30522: Contact Form 7 Material Design CSRF to stored XSS, WordPress plugin implementing Material Design had a cross-site request forgery flaw enabling stored XSS.
  • CVE-2024-9024 / CVE-2025-11872: Material Design Iconic Font Integration, WordPress icon-font plugin had published vulnerabilities.
  • material-design-lite maintenance concerns, Snyk flags the legacy package for project-maintenance and security issues.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 10

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free and open-source, zero licensing cost
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Comprehensive but complex to implement well
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Exhaustive guidelines, components, Figma kit
  • Support quality. No evidence found
  • Security posture: 3/5. Core is guidelines; ecosystem plugins had CVEs
  • $0 Price Open-source design system
  • Yes Free tier Guidelines, components, Figma kit all free
  • 14,013 Adoption Companies using it per TheirStack data
  • 2014 Introduced Debuted with Android Lollipop

Pricing

Open Source

$0

  • Full guidelines, styles, components
  • Figma design kit
  • Community support

Security

The design system itself is free guidelines, not runtime software — no direct CVEs.

  • CVE-2025-30522: Contact Form 7 Material Design CSRF to stored XSSWordPress plugin implementing Material Design had a cross-site request forgery flaw enabling stored XSS.⁶
  • CVE-2024-9024 / CVE-2025-11872: Material Design Iconic Font IntegrationWordPress icon-font plugin had published vulnerabilities.⁷

Vulnerabilities exist in third-party plugins implementing it.

  • material-design-lite maintenance concernsSnyk flags the legacy package for project-maintenance and security issues.⁸

What users say

Opinions are polarized: it is widely adopted and praised for consistency, but many designers call it generic, overused, or unattractive.

“Material UI single handedly ruined the internet.”
Reddit, r/UI_Design
“Isn't Material Design 3 kind of ugly ?”
Reddit, r/UI_Design
“Stop using Material Design text fields”
Hacker News

Companies that use it

  • Google (Gemini app)
Full analysis

Based on ~14 public sources. Product is a free design system, not a paid SaaS — no vendor pricing, ratings, or support reviews exist for it; ecosystem libraries and plugins were assessed instead.

Free, industry-standard design system. Great for Android and consistency; poor fit if you want a unique brand look.

Methodology

Based on ~14 public sources. Product is a free design system, not a paid SaaS — no vendor pricing, ratings, or support reviews exist for it; ecosystem libraries and plugins were assessed instead.

Sources

  1. Material Design 3 — official sitem3.material.io
    official
  2. Material UI single handedly ruined the internet — r/UI_Designreddit.com
    review
  3. Isn't Material Design 3 kind of ugly? — r/UI_Designreddit.com
    review
  4. Stop using Material Design text fields — Hacker Newsnews.ycombinator.com
    review
  5. Considering Material Design? Here's What You Should Know — ruttlruttl.com
    news
  6. CVE-2025-30522 — SentinelOne vulnerability databasesentinelone.com
    security
  7. CVE-2024-9024 — NVDnvd.nist.gov
    security
  8. material-design-lite — Snyksecurity.snyk.io
    security
  9. Companies that use Material Design — TheirStacktheirstack.com
    news
  10. Expressive Design: Google's UX Researchdesign.google
    official

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