Bootstrap 3 legacy browser support?

Question

I developed a website using Bootstrap 3. How would I go about supporting older browsers as a fallback? I was considering using Bootstrap 2 as the fallback. Would that be good, or is there an extension to Bootstrap 3 that makes it compatible with older versions of IE?

Answer 1

Bootstrap 3 is mostly compatible from Internet Explorer 8 onwards, you do however need to add the Respond.js polyfill to get the responsive grid to work. See nternet Explorer 8 and 9 in Bootstraps documentation for more information.

As Bootstrap 2 would only add support for Internet Explorer 7 you really need to ask yourself which browsers you want to support. See caniuse.com's Browser usage table for global usage statistics on browsers. Adding support for Internet Explorer 7 only would only allow for an additional 0.08% of global users to use your website. The statistics for your country might differ though.

As for combining Bootstrap 2 and Bootstrap 3 classes in the same html I think you'll find issues. The Migrating to 3.x guide might be the best start to find potential issues.