Bootstrap 5 Placeholders

Placeholders

Use loading placeholders for your components or pages to indicate something may still be loading.

🤖 Looking for the LLM-optimized version? View llm.md

Other frameworks

CoreUI components are available as native Angular, React, and Vue components. To learn more please visit the following pages.

On this page

About

Bootstrap placeholders can enhance your application’s user experience. They’re built exclusively with HTML and CSS, so you don’t need any JavaScript to create them. However, you’ll require some custom JavaScript to toggle their visibility. Their appearance, color, and size can be easily customized using our utility classes.

Example

In the example below, we use the Bootstrap card component and modify it with placeholders to form a “loading card.” The size and proportions remain consistent between the two.

Bootstrap card title

Some brief example text to expand on the card title and form most of the card's content.

Go somewhere

<div class="card">
  <img src="..." class="card-img-top" alt="...">

  <div class="card-body">
    <h5 class="card-title">Bootstrap card title</h5>
    <p class="card-text">Some brief example text to expand on the card title and form most of the card's content.</p>
    <a href="#" class="btn btn-primary">Go somewhere</a>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="card" aria-hidden="true">
  <img src="..." class="card-img-top" alt="...">
  <div class="card-body">
    <h5 class="card-title placeholder-glow">
      <span class="placeholder col-6"></span>
    </h5>
    <p class="card-text placeholder-glow">
      <span class="placeholder col-7"></span>
      <span class="placeholder col-4"></span>
      <span class="placeholder col-4"></span>
      <span class="placeholder col-6"></span>
      <span class="placeholder col-8"></span>
    </p>
    <a class="btn btn-primary disabled placeholder col-6" aria-disabled="true"></a>
  </div>
</div>

How it works

Create placeholders using the .placeholder class along with a grid column class (e.g., .col-6) to define the width. These placeholders can either replace text inside an element or be added as a modifier class to an existing component.

To ensure the height is maintained, we style .btns with ::before. This pattern can be expanded for other cases or a   can be added inside the element to match the height when actual text appears.

html

<p aria-hidden="true">
  <span class="placeholder col-6"></span>
</p>

<a class="btn btn-primary disabled placeholder col-4" aria-disabled="true"></a>

Using aria-hidden="true" simply tells screen readers to ignore the element. The actual loading behavior of the placeholder depends on how authors implement and style the placeholder, as well as how they update it. Some JavaScript may be necessary to toggle the placeholder’s state and notify AT users of the change.

Width

You can adjust the width using grid column classes, width utilities, or inline styles.

html

<span class="placeholder col-6"></span>
<span class="placeholder w-75"></span>
<span class="placeholder" style="width: 25%;"></span>

Color

By default, the placeholder uses currentColor, but this can be replaced with a custom color or utility class.

html

<span class="placeholder col-12"></span>

<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-primary"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-secondary"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-success"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-danger"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-warning"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-info"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-light"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 bg-dark"></span>

Sizing

The size of .placeholders depends on the typographic style of the parent element. Customize them with size modifiers: .placeholder-lg, .placeholder-sm, or .placeholder-xs.

html

<span class="placeholder col-12 placeholder-lg"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 placeholder-sm"></span>
<span class="placeholder col-12 placeholder-xs"></span>

Animation

Animate Bootstrap placeholders using .placeholder-glow or .placeholder-wave to visually suggest that content is actively loading.

html

<p class="placeholder-glow">
  <span class="placeholder col-12"></span>
</p>

<p class="placeholder-wave">
  <span class="placeholder col-12"></span>
</p>

Customization

SASS variables

scss/_variables.scss

$placeholder-opacity-max:           .5;
$placeholder-opacity-min:           .2;

CoreUI vs Bootstrap

While this Placeholder component is fully compatible with Bootstrap and follows its core principles, CoreUI delivers a more complete solution for modern app development.

What sets CoreUI apart from Bootstrap?

✅ Fully compatible with Bootstrap – Built directly on Bootstrap, all classes and behaviors work as expected.
🧠 Framework-native versions – CoreUI provides dedicated libraries for React.js, Vue.js, and Angular, unlike Bootstrap which relies on third-party plugins for JavaScript frameworks.
👨‍💻 Maintained by a full-time team – CoreUI is developed as a professional product, not a volunteer-driven project.
📦 More built-in components – Includes additional ready-to-use components like range sliders, multi-selects, steppers, etc.
🛠️ Sass Modules support today – CoreUI already supports Sass Modules, which are planned for Bootstrap 6.
🌍 Better LTR/RTL support – Uses modern CSS logical properties for seamless bidirectional layout support.
🔒 LTS (Long-Term Support) – Bootstrap now offers LTS only via paid third parties like HeroDevs, while CoreUI continues to offer long-term support natively and for free.

Whether you’re building internal tools, dashboards, or SaaS platforms — CoreUI combines the familiarity of Bootstrap with a more powerful, scalable, and production-ready ecosystem.

👉 Explore CoreUI Bootstrap Components
👉 Compare CoreUI vs Bootstrap