Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Purgecss VS Composer

Compare Purgecss VS Composer and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Purgecss logo Purgecss

Easily remove unused CSS

Composer logo Composer

Composer is a tool for dependency management in PHP.
  • Purgecss Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-28
  • Composer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-19

Purgecss features and specs

  • Reduced File Size
    PurgeCSS analyzes your CSS files and removes unused selectors, significantly reducing the size of your CSS files, leading to faster load times.
  • Performance Improvement
    By eliminating unnecessary CSS, PurgeCSS can improve the performance of your website, as there is less CSS for the browser to parse and execute.
  • Enhanced Maintainability
    With PurgeCSS, your CSS becomes cleaner and more manageable, making it easier for developers to maintain and update.
  • Integration
    PurgeCSS can be easily integrated into build tools like Webpack, Gulp, and Grunt, allowing seamless automation in the development workflow.
  • Customizability
    PurgeCSS offers configuration options that allow developers to specify content sources, safelisting of selectors, and more, making it highly customizable.

Possible disadvantages of Purgecss

  • Configuration Complexity
    Setting up PurgeCSS may require a detailed configuration to correctly identify which CSS selectors are in use, which can be complex for larger projects.
  • Potential Removal of Used Styles
    If not configured properly, PurgeCSS might accidentally remove dynamic classes generated by JavaScript or conditional rendering, affecting the functionality of the site.
  • Initial Setup Time
    The initial setup and integration process can be time-consuming, especially for projects with a large codebase or complex structure.
  • Limited Dynamic Content Handling
    PurgeCSS may struggle with highly dynamic sites where CSS classes are generated at runtime, requiring careful management or additional tools to ensure accuracy.
  • Learning Curve
    Developers may need to spend additional time learning how to effectively use PurgeCSS, especially if they are new to the tool or similar CSS management solutions.

Composer features and specs

  • Dependency Management
    Composer allows for easy and efficient management of PHP dependencies, ensuring that the correct versions are used and conflicts are minimized.
  • Autoloading
    Composer supports autoloading, which means you don't have to manually include or require files, reducing boilerplate code.
  • Version Control
    It allows developers to specify and install the exact versions of the libraries they need, which helps in maintaining consistency across different environments.
  • Community Support
    Composer has a vast and active community, resulting in a plethora of libraries and packages readily available for use.
  • PSR Compliance
    Composer adheres to PHP-FIG PSR standards, promoting best practices and interoperability among PHP projects.
  • Custom Repositories
    Ability to use custom repositories allows for flexibility, enabling enterprises to create their own repository for internal use.

Possible disadvantages of Composer

  • Learning Curve
    Beginners may find Composer overwhelming due to its command-line interface and the complexity of managing dependencies.
  • Performance
    Installing or updating packages can sometimes be slow, particularly for projects with many dependencies.
  • Dependency Conflicts
    While Composer aims to minimize conflicts, complex projects can still face issues with dependency resolution that require manual intervention.
  • File Size
    Projects using Composer can lead to increased file sizes due to the inclusion of multiple libraries and their dependencies.
  • Security
    Including third-party packages can expose a project to potential security vulnerabilities if those packages are not well-maintained or audited.

Purgecss videos

How to use PurgeCSS to Remove Unused CSS Classes from Tailwind CSS, Bootstrap, and more!

More videos:

  • Review - Gatsby.js with Tailwind CSS and PurgeCSS

Composer videos

AI vs Human Music Composer 2019 - Orb Composer Review

More videos:

  • Review - Review Composer Cloud from EastWest / Soundsonline.com
  • Review - Behringer Composer PRO-XL MDX2600 Review (AUDIO TEST)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Purgecss and Composer)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Development Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Design Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Javascript UI Libraries
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Purgecss and Composer. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Composer should be more popular than Purgecss. It has been mentiond 143 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.

Purgecss mentions (36)

View more

Composer mentions (143)

  • Arguments a customer can understand not to use WordPress
    There is also no requirement to follow the PHP-FIG standards. The best thing that is build because of those standards is Composer. The most plugins I downloaded while writing use composer. The problem is that the plugins ship with their own vendor directory. While the standard is to have one vendor directory for the whole project. This results in different packages with the same or different version of it in the... - Source: dev.to / 23 days ago
  • Insights from the PHP Foundation Executive Director
    “Extensions are now very close to being like packages; they basically look like Composer packages. It’s still open to discussion whether PIE will be part of Composer someday. It’s not decided yet, but I hope it will be,” Roman added. - Source: dev.to / 28 days ago
  • PHP Core Security Audit Results
    Dependencies are managed by Composer (like npm, cargo, etc) for more than 10 years now. https://getcomposer.org. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • WordPress and Components
    Composer and Packagist have become key tools for establishing the foundations of PHP-based applications. Packagist is essentially a directory containing PHP code out of which Composer, a PHP-dependency manager, retrieves packages. Their ease of use and exceptional features simplify the process of importing and managing own and third-party components into our PHP projects. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • 2025 Best PHP Micro Frameworks: Slim, Flight, Fat-Free, Lumen, and More!
    Simplicity: Getting started is a breeze—install via Composer, define some routes, and you’re off. Scaling up? Add middleware or libs like Twig or Eloquent as needed. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Purgecss and Composer, you can also consider the following products

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

jQuery - The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.

CSS Peeper - Smart CSS viewer tailored for Designers.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Unused CSS - Easily find and remove unused CSS rules

Babel - Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.