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PostCSS VS Unused CSS

Compare PostCSS VS Unused CSS 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.

Unused CSS logo Unused CSS

Easily find and remove unused CSS rules
  • PostCSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-19
  • Unused CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-13

Unused CSS

$ Details
paid Free Trial $29.0 / Monthly (Up to 1000 pages)

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    The quality and maintenance of available plugins can vary, with some plugins being outdated or less reliable than others.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.

Unused CSS features and specs

  • Performance Optimization
    Removing unused CSS can lead to faster page load times, improving user experience and potentially boosting SEO rankings.
  • Reduced File Size
    By eliminating unused CSS, the overall file size of stylesheets is reduced, which can decrease bandwidth usage and server load.
  • Improved Maintainability
    Cleaned-up CSS makes it easier for developers to read and maintain the stylesheet, reducing the complexity of future updates.
  • Fewer Rendering Issues
    By having only the necessary CSS, the likelihood of rendering issues and style conflicts is minimized, ensuring a more consistent design across different browsers and devices.

Possible disadvantages of Unused CSS

  • Potential Over-removal
    There is a risk of mistakenly removing CSS that is conditionally used (e.g., dynamic content or styled via JavaScript), which can lead to broken styles on the website.
  • Initial Setup Complexity
    Setting up tools to analyze and trim unused CSS can be complex, requiring time and technical expertise to configure properly.
  • Regular Maintenance
    Web applications that frequently change or add new content may require ongoing checks to ensure CSS remains optimal, which could increase maintenance efforts.
  • Risk of False Positives
    Automated tools might misidentify CSS as 'unused' if they're used in specific contexts not covered during the analysis phase, potentially leading to functionality issues.

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

Unused CSS videos

UnCSS your CSS! Removing Unused CSS with PostCSS & Parcel

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to Remove Unused CSS code from Joomla Web Pages - 👀 WMW 109

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PostCSS and Unused CSS)
Developer Tools
62 62%
38% 38
Design Tools
68 68%
32% 32
CSS Framework
100 100%
0% 0
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PostCSS seems to be a lot more popular than Unused CSS. While we know about 45 links to PostCSS, we've tracked only 1 mention of Unused CSS. 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
View more

Unused CSS mentions (1)

  • Top 15 Tools for Frontend Developers: Optimize Your Workflow
    Easily clean up your unused CSS rules with UnusedCSS. This tool scans your stylesheets and identifies CSS rules that are not being used in your project. By removing these unused rules, you can reduce the size of your CSS files, improving load times and overall performance. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago

What are some alternatives?

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

Sass - Syntatically Awesome Style Sheets

CSS Peeper - Smart CSS viewer tailored for Designers.

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

Purgecss - Easily remove unused CSS

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

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).