Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Pattern Lab VS CSS Peeper

Compare Pattern Lab VS CSS Peeper and see what are their differences

Pattern Lab logo Pattern Lab

Create atomic design systems with Pattern Lab.

CSS Peeper logo CSS Peeper

Smart CSS viewer tailored for Designers.
  • Pattern Lab Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-20
  • CSS Peeper Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-30

Pattern Lab features and specs

  • Component-Driven Development
    Pattern Lab encourages a modular approach by allowing developers to create reusable components, which promotes consistency and efficiency in developing user interfaces.
  • Atomic Design
    It is built on the Atomic Design methodology, which helps in designing systems by breaking down interfaces into basic building blocks, leading to more manageable and scalable design systems.
  • Live Style Guide
    Pattern Lab generates a live style guide that updates in real time as components are developed, making it easy for designers and developers to stay in sync with the design system.
  • Platform Agnostic
    Pattern Lab can be integrated with various development stacks and workflows, making it flexible and adaptable to a wide range of projects.
  • Enhanced Collaboration
    By facilitating a shared language and set of tools between designers and developers, Pattern Lab improves collaboration and reduces communication barriers.

Possible disadvantages of Pattern Lab

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For teams that are new to the Atomic Design methodology or to Pattern Lab itself, there can be a significant learning curve required to get up to speed.
  • Initial Setup Complexity
    Setting up a project can be complex, especially for beginners, as it requires understanding both the tool and the underlying design principles thoroughly.
  • Limited Customization
    Although flexible, Pattern Lab does have limitations in terms of customizations, which may not be suitable for very specific or unique project requirements.
  • Performance Overheads
    As projects grow in size and complexity, managing and compiling a large number of components can lead to performance overheads, affecting build times.
  • Maintenance Burden
    Keeping the Pattern Lab and its components in sync with the ongoing changes in projects can become a maintenance burden over time, requiring dedicated resources.

CSS Peeper features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    CSS Peeper features a clean and intuitive interface that makes it easy for designers and developers to quickly understand the CSS of any website without diving into the code.
  • Quick Inspection
    The tool allows for rapid inspection of CSS properties directly from the browser, enabling users to analyze styles more efficiently than traditional methods.
  • Extracts Colors and Assets
    CSS Peeper automatically extracts color palettes and assets from web pages, providing immediate access to crucial design elements.
  • Browser Extension
    Available as a Chrome extension, CSS Peeper is easy to install and use, integrating smoothly into the workflow of many web professionals.
  • Time-Saving
    By simplifying the process of inspecting and extracting CSS properties, CSS Peeper saves valuable time for developers and designers.
  • No Coding Required
    The tool eliminates the need for manual coding when examining CSS, making it accessible to non-developers.

Possible disadvantages of CSS Peeper

  • Limited Browser Support
    Currently, CSS Peeper is only available as a Chrome extension, limiting its use for those who prefer or require other browsers like Firefox or Safari.
  • Not Comprehensive
    While CSS Peeper is quick for basic analysis, it may not provide comprehensive details or control for advanced CSS inspection tasks that developers might need.
  • Dependency on Extension
    Reliance on a browser extension means that users must install and maintain the extension, which may not be preferred in all environments, especially restricted or managed systems.
  • Privacy Concerns
    As with any browser extension, there are potential privacy concerns, particularly in terms of what data the extension might access or share.
  • Performance Impact
    Installing too many extensions, including CSS Peeper, can potentially impact browser performance, causing slower load times and increased resource usage.

Pattern Lab videos

Introduction to Pattern Lab

More videos:

  • Review - Using Pattern Lab to Design More Efficiently

CSS Peeper videos

CSS Peeper: new tool for Web Designers

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Pattern Lab and CSS Peeper)
Design Tools
17 17%
83% 83
Developer Tools
14 14%
86% 86
React
100 100%
0% 0
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Pattern Lab and CSS Peeper

Pattern Lab Reviews

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CSS Peeper Reviews

112 Best Chrome Extensions You Should Try (2021 List)
CSS Peeper is one of the best Chrome extensions for web developers to extract more design and focus less on digging codes. It is intuitive to use. So easy to find an element and its styles on a page than it is with the built-in ‘inspect element’ tool in Chrome browser. CSS Developers who are invariably curious about web designs should use this extension.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Pattern Lab should be more popular than CSS Peeper. It has been mentiond 6 times since March 2021. 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.

Pattern Lab mentions (6)

  • Unlocking the frontend – a call for standardizing component APIs pt.2
    While this helped ease integration work, in parallel to that we also started exploring more systematic approaches on the frontend side itself. With the advent of Brad Frost Atomic Design, and tools like Pattern Lab, we started using a more component-centric approach. This included colocating all styling (CSS), behavior (JavaScript) and semantic structure (HTML) for a component, and way better encapsulation as a... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Atomic Design: A Methodology for Building Design Systems
    In order to apply this methodology in your work, you can use a tool called Pattern Lab, created by Brad Frost and Dave Olsen. Pattern Lab is a tool to create atomic design systems. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Integrating Accessibility In The Web Development Process
    Something that would really help to work with tested components and stay consistent with the code and guarantee code quality would be a component library created with Storybook or Pattern Lab, for example. Developers who have a high level of knowledge of how to write accessible code can create components and test them before implementing them. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • How do you make the styling of the site flexible to fast change, but not tedious to actually go in and change every single detail?
    You can read more about Atomic Design Systems and how it scales. I've used Patternlab and I find it awesome. Source: over 3 years ago
  • fractal.build as an atomic design tool
    Fractal seemed easier, at least to me, to understand and maintain, than PatternLab, which I failed to install due a bug in the current installer (and when I managed to install the grunt version, I was already told that there is fractal as a possible alternative). - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
View more

CSS Peeper mentions (3)

  • Using Adobe XD to find out a website's padding?
    You can indeed inspect the site with your browser's dev tools, or you have some Chrome extensions like: https://csspeeper.com/ that make the process more straightforward. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Your code, stylish
    Think CSS inspection through DevTools impractical or intimidating? CSS Peeper arrives to make inspecting styles easier and more elegant. It also intelligently extracts the site's color palette and makes it easy to export your assets. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • 25 Chrome extension for Designers
    @CSSPeeper 🌎 https://csspeeper.com/ CSS peeper is visual version of the chrome developer tools. It's great for designers looking to quickly & easily inspect the CSS from a website. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Pattern Lab and CSS Peeper, you can also consider the following products

Storybook - Storybook is an open source tool for developing UI components in isolation for React, Vue, and Angular. It makes building stunning UIs organized and efficient.

Tailwind CSS - A utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom user interfaces.

Swanky Docs - A simple, flexible and powerful ecosystem for creating beautiful documentation.

CSS Scan - Instantly check or copy computed CSS from any element for only ~95$

Backlight - Backlight is a unique collaborative platform to build Design Systems code-side.📐 Design tokens🧩 Component code and stories📖 Documentation site📦 Managed release to npmEverything in one place, in a true collaborative workspace.Try 👉 backlight.dev

CSSViewer - A simple CSS property viewer