Material Icons vs Simple Icons (2026)

Material Icons uses the MIT License — one of the most permissive open-source licenses. You can use it in any commercial project, modify the icons, and redistribute them freely. The only requirement is preserving the copyright notice in copies of the software.

Simple Icons uses CC0 1.0 (Public Domain). All copyrights have been waived. You can copy, modify, distribute, and use the icons for any purpose — including commercial — without attribution.

import HomeIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Home'
import HomeOutlinedIcon from '@mui/icons-material/HomeOutlined'
import SearchIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Search'
import DeleteIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Delete'

// ✅ Path imports — up to 6x faster in dev than barrel imports
// ❌ Avoid: import { HomeIcon } from '@mui/icons-material'

export default function App() {
  return (
    <div>
      {/* Filled — bold, solid, for primary actions */}
      <HomeIcon />

      {/* Outlined — minimal stroke-style, for supporting UI */}
      <HomeOutlinedIcon />

      {/* Sizing via fontSize prop */}
      <SearchIcon fontSize="small" />   {/* 20px */}
      <SearchIcon fontSize="medium" />  {/* 24px default */}
      <SearchIcon fontSize="large" />   {/* 35px */}
      <SearchIcon sx={{ fontSize: 48 }} />

      {/* Color via MUI theme tokens or custom hex */}
      <DeleteIcon color="error" />
      <DeleteIcon sx={{ color: '#6366f1' }} />
    </div>
  )
}

import {
  SiGithub,
  SiVercel,
  SiStripe,
  SiReact,
  SiNextdotjs,
  SiTailwindcss,
} from '@icons-pack/react-simple-icons'
// All components use 'Si' prefix + PascalCase brand name

export function TechStack() {
  return (
    <div className="flex items-center gap-4">
      {/* Use currentColor — inherits from parent */}
      <SiGithub size={24} />
      <SiVercel size={24} />

      {/* Use official brand color */}
      <SiStripe size={24} color="#635BFF" />
      <SiReact size={24} color="#61DAFB" />

      {/* Social links row */}
      <a href="https://github.com" aria-label="GitHub">
        <SiGithub size={20} className="text-gray-600 hover:text-gray-900" />
      </a>
    </div>
  )
}

Which is better: Material Icons or Simple Icons?

Choosing between Material Icons and Simple Icons depends entirely on your project's technical requirements and design aesthetic. Material Icons provides 2,100 icons and is notable for 5 style variants per icon — filled, outlined, rounded, sharp, twotone from one package, while Simple Icons offers 3,200 icons and is best known for 3,109 brand icons — 6x more than font awesome brands (465) at zero cost.

Are Material Icons and Simple Icons completely free to use?

Yes. Both libraries are highly permissive open-source projects. Material Icons is licensed under MIT, and Simple Icons is licensed under CC0 1.0 (Public Domain). Both licenses permit free commercial usage, modification, and redistribution in both personal and enterprise projects.

Do these libraries support TypeScript natively?

Yes, Material Icons includes excellent built-in TypeScript definitions. Similarly, Simple Icons offers robust native TypeScript support for an improved developer experience.

npm install @mui/icons-material @mui/material @emotion/styled @emotion/react

npm install @icons-pack/react-simple-icons