Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Purgecss VS Principle

Compare Purgecss VS Principle and see what are their differences

Purgecss logo Purgecss

Easily remove unused CSS

Principle logo Principle

Principle makes it easy to create animated and interactive user interface designs.
  • Purgecss Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-28
  • Principle Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-19

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.

Principle features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Principle offers a highly intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced designers.
  • Powerful Animation Features
    The tool supports complex animations and interactive designs, enabling designers to create rich and engaging prototypes.
  • Responsive Preview
    Principle provides real-time previews of your designs on actual devices, allowing designers to see exactly how their work will look and behave.
  • Import from Sketch and Figma
    Users can easily import designs from popular design tools like Sketch and Figma, streamlining the workflow.
  • High-Fidelity Prototyping
    Capable of producing high-fidelity prototypes that closely resemble the final product, making it ideal for user testing and presentations.

Possible disadvantages of Principle

  • Mac-Only
    Principle is exclusively available for macOS, which limits its accessibility for designers using Windows or other operating systems.
  • Cost
    The software comes with a significant price tag, potentially making it less accessible for freelancers or small teams with limited budgets.
  • Lack of Collaboration Features
    Unlike some other tools, Principle lacks advanced collaboration features, making it difficult for teams to work simultaneously on a project.
  • Limited Cloud Integration
    Principle does not offer extensive cloud integration options, which can hinder version control and file sharing across teams.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While the basic interface is user-friendly, mastering its more advanced animation and interaction features can take time.

Analysis of Purgecss

Overall verdict

  • Purgecss is a valuable tool for developers looking to optimize their CSS for production environments. It is especially useful for projects where CSS can become bloated due to unused styles. However, users should be cautious when configuring Purgecss to ensure that essential styles are not accidentally removed.

Why this product is good

  • Purgecss is designed to remove unused CSS, which can reduce the file size of your stylesheets, improve loading times, and ensure more efficient use of resources. It scans your HTML, JavaScript, and other files to determine which CSS classes are actually used, and eliminates the rest. This is particularly beneficial in large projects or when using CSS frameworks that include many utility classes.

Recommended for

    Purgecss is recommended for web developers working on projects with significant CSS codebases, especially when using CSS frameworks like Bootstrap or Tailwind CSS. It's also ideal for teams focused on performance optimization and efficient resource management in web applications.

Analysis of Principle

Overall verdict

  • Principle is generally regarded as a good tool for designers, especially those who need to prototype interactive and animated designs. Its robust feature set and user-friendly design make it a preferred choice among many UI/UX professionals.

Why this product is good

  • Principle is a popular prototyping tool for Mac users, known for its intuitive interface and powerful features. It allows designers to create animated and interactive user interface designs efficiently. Users often praise it for its ease of use and the ability to quickly bring design concepts to life. Offering features such as timeline animations, multi-screen interactions, and the ability to import designs from Sketch, it makes the design workflow more streamlined.

Recommended for

  • UI/UX designers looking for a Mac-compatible prototyping tool
  • Designers familiar with Sketch who want to easily import their designs
  • Professionals needing to create high-fidelity animations and interactions
  • Teams looking to demonstrate design concepts through interactive prototypes

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

Principle videos

The Talos Principle (Review)

More videos:

  • Review - American Scandi Gerber Principle Knife
  • Review - The Talos Principle (Zero Punctuation)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Purgecss and Principle)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Prototyping
0 0%
100% 100
Design Tools
51 51%
49% 49
CSS Framework
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Purgecss and Principle

Purgecss Reviews

We have no reviews of Purgecss yet.
Be the first one to post

Principle Reviews

11 Best Prototyping Tools For UI/UX Designers — How To Choose The Right One?
Principle is built for OS X and comes with an iOS app to mirror live prototypes. Whether you’re designing the flow of a multi-screen app, or new interactions and animations, Principle lets you create designs that look and feel amazing. The app appears very much like the UI of Sketch including other familiar aspects of alignment, art board creation, and screen connections,...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Purgecss should be more popular than Principle. It has been mentiond 36 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

Principle mentions (8)

  • What app was used to design this animated image?
    Seeing how principle is on the list. I'm going to say principle. It's like after effect but for interface design. Source: over 2 years ago
  • A mobile shopping app we just finished
    However, I did manage to make a very simple animation with my very limited skills for another project using Principle. Source: over 2 years ago
  • How to use animations to increase conversion
    Your visitors will scan your hero image or graphic first. Take advantage of that. Create subtle animations that explain better your product or offer. How will the interface be used? How simple it is? Keep it simple. I use Principle or Figma smart animate feature. If it's too complicated for you it might be very easy for a designer. Hire one for a small gig. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • New prototype: What if Tesla had an App Store?
    I use Figma & Principle to design & prototype, usually. I show a bit of the process on my YouTube channel, if you're interested. Source: over 3 years ago
  • I made an eyes-free gesture prototype — thoughts?
    No engineering here, just smoke & mirrors! This is a set of mockups stitched together with Principle into a prototype that runs on my iPad. It uses simple keyframing for most animations and is configured to react to different touch targets. Not a single line of code was harmed in the making of this prototype ;). Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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

ProtoPie - ProtoPie is the easiest tool used to turn your UI/UX design ideas into highly interactive prototypes for mobile, desktop, web, all the way to IoT.

CSS Peeper - Smart CSS viewer tailored for Designers.

Adobe XD - Adobe XD is an all-in-one UX/UI solution for designing websites, mobile apps and more. 

Unused CSS - Easily find and remove unused CSS rules

UXpin - Design is really about solving problems. UXPin is the UX Design Platform that gets that right.