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PostCSS VS stylelint

Compare PostCSS VS stylelint and see what are their differences

PostCSS logo 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.

stylelint logo stylelint

stylelint is a modern CSS linter
  • PostCSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-19
  • stylelint Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-01

PostCSS features and specs

  • Modularity
    PostCSS is built around plugins, which means you can choose the exact features you need and avoid bloat. This modularity offers high customizability.
  • Performance
    PostCSS is known for its fast performance owing to its efficient processing and the ability to use only required plugins.
  • Large ecosystem
    With a vast set of available plugins, PostCSS can achieve a wide range of functionality, from linting and vendor prefixing to advanced CSS transformations.
  • Active community
    An active open-source community continuously maintains and updates PostCSS and its plugins, ensuring long-term support and innovation.
  • Integration
    PostCSS can be easily integrated into various build systems such as Webpack, Gulp, and Grunt, making it highly versatile in different development environments.

Possible disadvantages of PostCSS

  • Learning curve
    Given its flexibility and the need to configure and choose among many plugins, PostCSS can have a steeper learning curve for beginners.
  • Plugin dependencies
    Relying on multiple plugins can lead to dependency management issues, and possible conflicts between plugins if not carefully handled.
  • Configuration overhead
    Setting up PostCSS might require more initial configuration effort compared to some integrated solutions which provide out-of-the-box functionality.
  • Plugin quality variance
    The quality and maintenance of available plugins can vary, with some plugins being outdated or less reliable than others.
  • Lack of opinionation
    PostCSS's unopinionated nature means it requires developers to have a clear understanding of their needs, potentially leading to inconsistencies in plugin choices if used across different projects.

stylelint features and specs

  • Highly Configurable
    Stylelint offers extensive configuration options, allowing developers to customize rules to fit the specific coding style and standards of their projects.
  • Extensive Rule Set
    With a broad collection of rules, developers can enforce best practices, catch potential errors, and maintain consistent code style across the project.
  • Plugin Support
    Stylelint supports plugins, enabling developers to extend its functionality and integrate with other tools seamlessly.
  • Active Community and Maintenance
    Stylelint is supported by an active community that contributes to its development, ensuring it stays up-to-date with the latest CSS standards and practices.
  • Integration with Other Tools
    Stylelint can be integrated with various development tools and text editors, making it easier for developers to incorporate it into their existing workflow.

Possible disadvantages of stylelint

  • Complex Configuration
    The high level of configurability can lead to complexity, requiring a steep learning curve for new users to understand and set up rules.
  • Performance Concerns with Large Codebases
    Stylelint can potentially slow down in very large projects, as it processes and analyzes a significant amount of code data.
  • Limited Support for Non-CSS Syntax
    While Stylelint can be configured to support various CSS-like syntaxes, it might not provide as robust support for non-standard or newer syntaxes as native handling.
  • Requires Manual Updating
    To benefit from new rules or performance improvements, users may need to manually update Stylelint and its configurations frequently.
  • Overhead for Small Projects
    For small projects, setting up and maintaining Stylelint might add unnecessary overhead due to its extensive features and options.

PostCSS videos

UnCSS your CSS! Removing Unused CSS with PostCSS & Parcel

More videos:

  • Review - Terry Smith – Keep your CSS simple with postcss and tailwind
  • Review - #1 PostCSS Обзор

stylelint videos

Stylelint ( By Andrey Sitnik at CSSParis #6 )

More videos:

  • Review - Stylelint — как и зачем линтить CSS (Андрей Ситник) - TK Conf

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PostCSS and stylelint)
Developer Tools
74 74%
26% 26
Code Analysis
0 0%
100% 100
Design Tools
84 84%
16% 16
CSS Framework
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PostCSS should be more popular than stylelint. It has been mentiond 45 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.

PostCSS mentions (45)

  • Desktop apps for Windows XP in 2025
    Fortunately we have tools like PostCSS and Babel, that let you target your specific Browser version, and they'll do their best to transpile and polyfill your code to work with that version. This alone will do a lot of the heavy lifting for you if you are working with a lot of code. However, if you are just writing out a few HTML, CSS, and JS files, then that would be overkill and you can just figure out what code... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Improving Code Quality with Linting
    For example, linting CSS can be beneficial in cases where you need to support legacy browsers. Downgrading JavaScript is pretty common, but it's not always as simple for CSS. Using a linter allows you to be honest with yourself by flagging problematic lines that won't work in older environments, ensuring your pages look as good as possible for everyone. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • 30+ CSS libraries and frameworks help you style your applications efficiently.
    PostCSS PostCSS is a tool for transforming CSS with JavaScript plugins. These plugins can lint your CSS, support variables and mixins, transpile future CSS syntax, inline images, and more. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Webpack Performance Tuning: Minimizing Build Times for Large Projects
    PostCSS is essential to the frontend ecosystem, with 69,473,603 downloads per week, it is bigger than all the above libraries mentioned, and has many features other than polyfilling, it is used by all the frameworks like Next.js, Svelte, Vue, and Tailwind under the hood. LightningCSS, created by the maintainer of another bundler Parcel, and written in Rust, is an excellent alternative. It provides all the... - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • CSS Variable Naming: Best Practices and Approaches
    Stylelint: A modern, flexible linter for CSS that can be configured to check variable consistency. PostCSS: A tool that transforms CSS with plugins, including variable checks. CSS Linter: A specific tool to ensure correct and consistent use of CSS variables. Conclusion 🔗. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
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stylelint mentions (28)

  • Improving Code Quality with Linting
    You can even lint your stylesheets if you're working with CSS. One of my favourite tools for that is Stylelint. Similar to ESLint, it's configuration-based and lets you define what rules you want to include, it also has a recommended configuration that you can extend from. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • CSS Variable Naming: Best Practices and Approaches
    Stylelint: A modern, flexible linter for CSS that can be configured to check variable consistency. PostCSS: A tool that transforms CSS with plugins, including variable checks. CSS Linter: A specific tool to ensure correct and consistent use of CSS variables. Conclusion 🔗. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • BEM Modifiers in Pure CSS Nesting
    Once upon a time, when native CSS nesting was just starting to be discussed, I thought, "Nesting? In pure CSS? I will never use that!" But over time, I got used to it, and now I even like it. Will the same happen with native CSS mixins, or, heaven forbid, native CSS loops? I want to say no, but I will not make predictions. At the very least, with experience, I have become acquainted with a wonderful tool like... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Streamline Your Workflow: A Guide to Normalising Git Commit and Push Processes
    There are more linting tools that I won't go into deeply, but you can integrate them with lint-staged. For example, you can lint your CSS content with Stylelint, or even lint your README files with markdownlint, etc. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Why it is Important to Update Linters and How to Do it Right
    Another common way to extend configs in linters is using the extends key in the configuration file. Let's take StyleLint as an example:. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing PostCSS and stylelint, you can also consider the following products

Sass - Syntatically Awesome Style Sheets

ESLint - The fully pluggable JavaScript code quality tool

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

Prettier - An opinionated code formatter

Bootstrap - Simple and flexible HTML, CSS, and JS for popular UI components and interactions

SonarQube - SonarQube, a core component of the Sonar solution, is an open source, self-managed tool that systematically helps developers and organizations deliver Clean Code.