Skeleton is a self acclaimed simple boilerplate that suits those who don’t need the vast range of elements that larger frameworks possess.

Browsing through the Skeleton docs you will notice that yes there isn’t a whole lot of styling, elements and customizing that you may have got used to with Bootstrap 4.

It appears that Skeleton is correct in its simpleness but also the clean approach to typography, which would make Skeleton a great match for a blog.

The skeleton.min.css is only 2.03KB in size, compared to Bootstrap 4.13 being 20.87KB in size.

Grid system

Like other frameworks the grid in skeleton consists of 12 columns which are automatically responsive. I believe the system is a lot easier than Bootstrap as defining a column is simple done by its size

<div class="row">
  <div class="two columns">Two</div>
  <div class="ten columns">Ten</div>
</div>

Instead of the different view points like lg, md and sm in Skeleton you just define how many columns you actually want.

<div class="row">
  <div class="one-half column">1/2</div>
  <div class="one-half column">1/2</div>
</div>

The rest

There is only one colored button .button-primary and table styling consists of nothing however the form contains a row and column system.

Making it possible to compress forms and have less white space

<div class="row">
  <div class="six columns">
    <label for="exampleEmailInput">Your email</label>
    <input class="u-full-width" type="email" placeholder="test@mailbox.com" id="exampleEmailInput">
  </div>
  <div class="six columns">
    <label for="name">Your name</label>
    <input class="u-full-width" type="text" placeholder="" id="name">
  </div>
</div>

There is no nav bar, jumbotrons, cards, progress bars, badges or pills but that is ok because Skeleton isn’t a direct competitor or alternative to Bootstrap. Skeleton is in its own league as a simple and clean boilerplate.

Non flashy but rather classy. Skeleton is a good starting point if you want the basic typography, responsiveness and design without needing to go through a large docs page or tinker with many classes.