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Stylus VS CSS Next

Compare Stylus VS CSS Next and see what are their differences

Stylus logo Stylus

EXPRESSIVE, DYNAMIC, ROBUST CSS

CSS Next logo CSS Next

Use tomorrow’s CSS syntax, today.
  • Stylus Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-20

Stylus is a revolutionary new language, providing an efficient, dynamic, and expressive way to generate CSS. Supporting both an indented syntax and regular CSS style.

  • CSS Next Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-02-22

Stylus features and specs

  • Simplified Syntax
    Stylus provides an optional semicolon-free and curly-brace-free syntax, making the code cleaner and easier to write.
  • Extensive Feature Set
    Stylus offers a wide range of features like mixins, nesting, variables, functions, and built-in functions, which increase its flexibility and power.
  • Preprocessor Enhancements
    Stylus includes advanced features that are not available in CSS alone, such as mathematical operations, conditionals, and loops, which can make stylesheets more dynamic and maintainable.
  • JavaScript Interoperability
    Stylus allows embedding of JavaScript expressions and logic directly within the stylesheets, providing developers with additional functionality and control.

Possible disadvantages of Stylus

  • Learning Curve
    The flexibility and multitude of features in Stylus can introduce complexity, making it harder for beginners to grasp quickly compared to more straightforward CSS preprocessors.
  • Less Popularity
    Stylus is less popular than other preprocessors like Sass or LESS, which might result in fewer learning resources, community support, and third-party tools.
  • Potential for Overuse
    The advanced features could lead developers to overuse them, resulting in overly complex code that is difficult to maintain and understand.
  • Build Tool Dependencies
    Integration of Stylus into a project generally requires additional build tools and configurations, which can add to the setup and maintenance overhead.

CSS Next features and specs

  • Future CSS Features
    CSS Next allows developers to use the latest CSS syntax and features that may not yet be supported by all browsers, enabling progressive enhancement and future-proofing stylesheets.
  • Simplified Syntax
    By using future CSS features, developers can write more concise and expressive code, making stylesheets easier to read and maintain.
  • Polyfills and Transpilation
    CSS Next automatically provides polyfills and transpiles CSS so that the latest features can be used even in environments that do not yet support them natively.
  • Improved Workflow
    With CSS Next, developers can directly utilize tools that help improve styling workflows, such as variables, custom selectors, and media queries, more conveniently.

Possible disadvantages of CSS Next

  • Dependency on Tooling
    CSS Next requires a build process for transpilation, which adds complexity and dependencies to project setup and maintenance.
  • Potential Performance Overhead
    The polyfills and transpilation process can introduce a performance overhead during development and build times, affecting the speed of initial setup.
  • Limited Support for Older Browsers
    While CSS Next helps bring future features to more browsers, it might not fully support significantly older browsers, necessitating additional fallbacks or workarounds.
  • Project Activity and Maintenance
    Due to changes in the web development landscape and focus shifts, CSS Next might not be actively maintained, potentially leading developers to use alternatives like PostCSS or native CSS features as they become available.

Stylus videos

Best stylus for iPhone! Don't waste your money!

More videos:

  • Review - What is the best iPad stylus?
  • Review - Review: MEKO 2-in-1 Stylus (2nd Gen)

CSS Next videos

No CSS Next videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Stylus and CSS Next)
Developer Tools
77 77%
23% 23
Browser Extension
100 100%
0% 0
CSS Framework
58 58%
42% 42
Design Tools
66 66%
34% 34

User comments

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Reviews

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

Stylus Reviews

112 Best Chrome Extensions You Should Try (2021 List)
Stylus offers functionality to install and write themes. It is an open-source community-driven extension that makes it much better than its counterparts. Using Stylus, you can install themes from popular repositories, backup your installed styles, and much more. Watch the above video to learn more about Stylus.

CSS Next Reviews

We have no reviews of CSS Next yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Stylus should be more popular than CSS Next. It has been mentiond 14 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.

Stylus mentions (14)

  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    Stylus: Provides a more efficient and elegant way to generate CSS. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • 33 front-end development tools developers use in 2024
    Sass, Less and Stylus, extends CSS by adding variables, nesting mixins, and other features. It's an excellent solution for organizing huge and complex stylesheets. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • BEM Modifiers in Pure CSS Nesting
    I hate preprocessors. Be it SASS, SCSS, LESS, Stylus, or any other. Really, without any exceptions. Though, I think my hatred for preprocessors is not because of the technology itself, but because of how other people use them. Throughout my development career, I have often encountered tickets where a seemingly simple task, like changing the text size, which should take minutes, ended up taking me hours. This is... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Future of CSS: Functions and Mixins
    Traditionally CSS lacked features such as variables, nesting, mixins, and functions. This was frustrating for Developers as it often led to CSS quickly becoming complex and cumbersome. In an attempt to make code easier and less repetitive CSS pre-processors were born. You would write CSS in the format the pre-processor understood and, at build time, you'd have some nice CSS. The most common pre-processors these... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Quick Guide To CSS Preprocessors
    The Stylus is built on Node.js. It differs from Sass and Less, which are more opinionated to the syntax; the stylus allows you to omit semicolons, colons, and braces if you want at any time. Another cool feature is that the stylus has a property lookup feature. You can do that easily if you set property X relative to property Y's value. The stylus can be more concise because of its flexibility, but it depends on... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
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CSS Next mentions (2)

  • PostCSS - my initial experience
    The author of the most popular PostCSS plugin himself recommended the postcss-preset-env over his own creation which is cssnex, and. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Vanilla+PostCSS as an Alternative to SCSS
    Switching from a ready-made tool like Sass or a recommendation package like cssnext (deprecated since 2019) or PostCSS Preset Env (archived in 2022), to the modular PostCSS Preset Env plugin set we can choose a helpful and convenient set of future CSS features beyond the current stable client CSS. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Stylus and CSS Next, you can also consider the following products

Sass - Syntatically Awesome Style Sheets

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.

Stylecow - CSS processor to fix your css code and make it compatible with all browsers

Dark Reader - Reduce eye strain in your browser with this extension that provides a dark theme for browsing.

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).

Stylebot - Change the appearance of websites instantly. Preview and install styles created by other users on stylebot.me