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CSS Next VS Autoprefixer

Compare CSS Next VS Autoprefixer and see what are their differences

CSS Next logo CSS Next

Use tomorrow’s CSS syntax, today.

Autoprefixer logo Autoprefixer

autoprefixer - Parse CSS and add vendor prefixes to rules by Can I Use
  • CSS Next Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-02-22
  • Autoprefixer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-01

CSS Next features and specs

  • Future CSS Features
    CSS Next allows developers to use the latest CSS syntax and features that may not yet be supported by all browsers, enabling progressive enhancement and future-proofing stylesheets.
  • Simplified Syntax
    By using future CSS features, developers can write more concise and expressive code, making stylesheets easier to read and maintain.
  • Polyfills and Transpilation
    CSS Next automatically provides polyfills and transpiles CSS so that the latest features can be used even in environments that do not yet support them natively.
  • Improved Workflow
    With CSS Next, developers can directly utilize tools that help improve styling workflows, such as variables, custom selectors, and media queries, more conveniently.

Possible disadvantages of CSS Next

  • Dependency on Tooling
    CSS Next requires a build process for transpilation, which adds complexity and dependencies to project setup and maintenance.
  • Potential Performance Overhead
    The polyfills and transpilation process can introduce a performance overhead during development and build times, affecting the speed of initial setup.
  • Limited Support for Older Browsers
    While CSS Next helps bring future features to more browsers, it might not fully support significantly older browsers, necessitating additional fallbacks or workarounds.
  • Project Activity and Maintenance
    Due to changes in the web development landscape and focus shifts, CSS Next might not be actively maintained, potentially leading developers to use alternatives like PostCSS or native CSS features as they become available.

Autoprefixer features and specs

  • Automated CSS Vendor Prefixing
    Autoprefixer automatically adds vendor prefixes to CSS rules, ensuring compatibility with different browsers without manually writing prefixes.
  • Keep Up with Browser Updates
    Autoprefixer stays updated with the latest information about browser support, allowing developers to focus on writing standard CSS and not worry about changing requirements.
  • Configurable Browsing Target
    Developers can specify the target browsers and versions, making it possible to control the level of backward compatibility needed for a project.
  • Integrates with Build Tools
    It integrates smoothly with various build tools and task runners like webpack, Gulp, and Grunt, streamlining the development workflow.
  • Reduces File Size
    Autoprefixer only applies necessary prefixes based on specified browser support, which can help keep the CSS footprint small compared to manually adding excess prefixes.

Possible disadvantages of Autoprefixer

  • Potential Overhead
    There might be an initial setup time to properly configure Autoprefixer with the desired build tools and browser targets.
  • Dependence on Tools
    Using Autoprefixer requires integration into a build process or toolchain, which might not suit smaller projects or those without a build process.
  • Learning Curve
    For developers who are new to post-processing tools, understanding and correctly applying tool configurations might take some learning time.
  • Not a Silver Bullet
    While Autoprefixer handles vendor prefixing, it doesn't correct other CSS-related issues, which might still require manual adjustments and cross-browser testing.

CSS Next videos

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Autoprefixer videos

Stop Worrying about Vendor Prefixes with Autoprefixer | XI to Eye vol 8

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CSS Next and Autoprefixer)
Developer Tools
47 47%
53% 53
CSS Framework
29 29%
71% 71
Design Tools
36 36%
64% 64
Development Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Autoprefixer seems to be a lot more popular than CSS Next. While we know about 22 links to Autoprefixer, we've tracked only 2 mentions of CSS Next. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

CSS Next mentions (2)

  • PostCSS - my initial experience
    The author of the most popular PostCSS plugin himself recommended the postcss-preset-env over his own creation which is cssnex, and. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Vanilla+PostCSS as an Alternative to SCSS
    Switching from a ready-made tool like Sass or a recommendation package like cssnext (deprecated since 2019) or PostCSS Preset Env (archived in 2022), to the modular PostCSS Preset Env plugin set we can choose a helpful and convenient set of future CSS features beyond the current stable client CSS. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago

Autoprefixer mentions (22)

  • Exploring Tailwind Oxide
    Unlike other frameworks, you can’t just npm install and write code. Take one look at the Tailwind CSS installation page and before you even begin, you need to decide if you want to install it with the CLI or as a PostCSS plugin. Wait, you know CSS, but what is PostCSS? Then, you keep reading and you see something about CSS preprocessor and you might wonder what that is too. Then, you see that you not only have to... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Native CSS nesting now supported by all major browsers!
    Mixins - This allows you to reuse a set of rules inside another rule. I never really found a good use case for mixins. They were available to me when I was still using Bootstrap with LESS, but using them seemed a little complex, because you always need to look up what they do and the resulting CSS output is not always clear. If you're thinking of using them for browser prefixes (e.g. -webkit-transform), I would... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • 23 of the best Eleventy Themes (Starters) for 2023
    Simple, fast, and a little bit opinionated, Eleventy Plus Vite features Eleventy 2.0.0-canary, the new Eleventy 2.0 Dev Server with live reload, Vite 3.0 as Middleware in Eleventy Dev Server (using eleventy-plugin-vite), build output post-processing by Vite (with Rollup), CSS/Sass post-processing with PostCSS including Autoprefixer and cssnano, a custom CSS/Sass structure, basic fluid typography based on Utopia,... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • The Complete Guide for Setting Up React App from Scratch (feat. TypeScript)
    w/ postcss-preset-env(v7.8.3): convert modern CSS into something most browsers can understand, determining the polyfills you need based on your targeted browsers or runtime environments. It takes the support data that comes from MDN and Can I Use and determine from a browserlist whether those transformations are needed. It also packs Autoprefixer within and shares the list with it, so prefixes are only applied... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • How do I deal with CSS for Safari?
    As others have said, you need to normalize. Also, you may need something like autoprefixer if you're using styles that have different vendor prefixes. https://github.com/postcss/autoprefixer. Source: over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing CSS Next and Autoprefixer, you can also consider the following products

PostCSS - Increase code readability. Add vendor prefixes to CSS rules using values from Can I Use. Autoprefixer will use the data based on current browser popularity and property support to apply prefixes for you.

Stylecow - CSS processor to fix your css code and make it compatible with all browsers

Less - Less extends CSS with dynamic behavior such as variables, mixins, operations and functions. Less runs on both the server-side (with Node. js and Rhino) or client-side (modern browsers only).

Sass - Syntatically Awesome Style Sheets

Bourbon - Bourbon - A simple and lightweight mixin library for Sass / CSS.

Stylus - EXPRESSIVE, DYNAMIC, ROBUST CSS