Material Design Icons is a solid choice — 14,001 icons, Apache 2.0 licensed. But it is not the only one, and it is not the best fit for every project. Below are 8 open-source alternatives ranked by how directly they answer the reasons people look for a replacement: more coverage, more visual range, or a simpler license.
| Library | Icons | Variants | License | React package | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material Symbols | 18,547 | variable weight, fill, grade and optical size axes | Apache 2.0 | @material-symbols/svg-400 |
vs Material |
| Fluent UI Icons | 20,170 | regular and filled | MIT | @fluentui/react-icons |
vs Material |
| Carbon Icons | 2,644 | outline only | Apache 2.0 | @carbon/icons-react |
vs Material |
| Ionicons | 2,607 | outline, filled and sharp | MIT | ionicons |
vs Material |
| Lucide Icons | 1,979 | outline only | ISC | lucide-react |
vs Material |
| Heroicons | 1,297 | outline and solid | MIT | @heroicons/react |
vs Material |
| Phosphor Icons | 9,198 | thin, light, regular, bold, fill and duotone | MIT | phosphor-react |
vs Material |
| Tabler Icons | 6,324 | outline only | MIT | @tabler/icons-react |
vs Material |
Products that follow Material Design, Android-adjacent apps, and any interface where recognition matters more than distinctiveness. If your users already use Gmail, Drive, or Android, these icons need no explanation.
Google's newer Material Symbols supersedes this set with variable-font icons in a single file. For a less Google-flavoured look, Fluent UI and Carbon are the enterprise equivalents.
Start from the constraint that actually binds your project. If it is coverage, sort by icon count — the difference between a 286-icon set and a 20,000-icon set is whether you ever have to design a glyph yourself. If it is visual range, look at variants per concept: a library with six weights lets you build hierarchy without a second dependency. If it is legal simplicity, avoid CC BY sets where attribution is impractical.
All of these libraries are indexed on IconStash, so you can search one concept and compare how every set drew it before committing.
The usual reasons are coverage, style range and licensing. Material Design Icons ships 14,001 icons in outlined, rounded, sharp, two-tone and filled. If you need concepts it does not cover, or several visual weights from one set, or a license without attribution, one of the alternatives below will fit better.
Every library listed here is open source and free for commercial use. Most are MIT, ISC or Apache 2.0, none of which require attribution. The exception in this list is any CC BY 4.0 set, which does require a visible credit — check the license column in the table above before committing.
Technically yes, but mixing sets usually looks inconsistent because each one draws to its own grid and stroke weight. If you need to fill a gap, prefer pulling a single icon and redrawing it to match your primary set.