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Tailwind CSS VS stylelint

Compare Tailwind CSS VS stylelint and see what are their differences

Tailwind CSS logo Tailwind CSS

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

stylelint logo stylelint

stylelint is a modern CSS linter
  • Tailwind CSS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • stylelint Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-01

Tailwind CSS features and specs

  • Utility-First Approach
    Tailwind CSS uses a utility-first approach, promoting the use of small, reusable utility classes to style elements directly in your markup. This can lead to more readable and maintainable HTML.
  • Customization
    The framework is highly customizable. You can easily configure its default theme, add your extensions, and create custom utilities. Tailwind’s config file allows for deep customization of all aspects of the framework.
  • Consistent Design
    Using utility classes ensures design consistency because the same classes will apply the same styles globally.
  • Responsive Design
    Tailwind CSS has excellent built-in support for responsive design. You can easily apply different styles for different screen sizes using responsive utility variants.
  • Performance
    Tailwind purges unused CSS in production, resulting in smaller final output files and improved performance.
  • Integrates Well with Frameworks
    Tailwind CSS integrates smoothly with modern JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular.
  • JIT Compiler
    The Just-in-Time (JIT) mode in Tailwind CSS generates styles on-demand, reducing the development build sizes and speeding up the development process.

Possible disadvantages of Tailwind CSS

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For developers coming from traditional CSS or other CSS frameworks, getting used to Tailwind's utility-first approach may take some time.
  • HTML Congestion
    Due to the utility-first approach, HTML files can get filled with numerous utility classes, making it look cluttered and harder to read.
  • Initial Setup
    Setting up Tailwind CSS initially can be complex, especially for beginners. Configuration settings and integrations with build tools can be confusing.
  • Verbosity
    Some developers find the inline utility classes verbose, particularly when complex styles are required, which can lead to bloated template files.
  • Limited Abstractions
    Tailwind doesn't provide higher-level abstractions such as components out of the box, like other frameworks (e.g., Bootstrap) do. Developers need to build and maintain these abstractions themselves.
  • Dependency Tailoring
    While Tailwind aims to be minimalistic, it may enforce some dependencies or build tool integrations that could be unnecessary for very simple 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.

Tailwind CSS videos

Why I Don't Like Tailwind CSS

More videos:

  • Review - Vanilla CSS vs Bootstrap vs Tailwind CSS - Which one should you choose?
  • Review - Get Started with Tailwind CSS in 15 Minutes

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 Tailwind CSS and stylelint)
Developer Tools
98 98%
2% 2
Code Analysis
0 0%
100% 100
Design Tools
99 99%
1% 1
CSS Framework
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

Tailwind CSS Reviews

  1. Awesome framework

    I use it in all my current projects. It's easy to start and very customisable. Love it so much! I improved the speed of development 2x times by using Tailwind.


22 Best Bootstrap Alternatives & What Each Is Best For
Tailwind CSS comes with features such as responsive design, customizability, hover, focus, and active states out of the box. These enable developers to build sophisticated, interactive interfaces with ease. When it comes to integrations, Tailwind CSS can be integrated with popular front-end frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular, enhancing its utility across different...
Source: thectoclub.com
15 Top Bootstrap Alternatives For Frontend Developers in 2024
If you want to learn the valuable skill of Tailwind CSS, we highly recommend taking the "Tailwind CSS From Scratch" course by Brad Traversy on Udemy. In this introductory course, you will build great-looking layouts quickly and efficiently using Tailwind CSS utility classes.
Source: coursesity.com
10 Best Free React UI Libraries in 2023
TailwindCSS is a utility-first CSS framework designed to build modern and beautiful websites in no time. Here, utility class names define what to do. Each utility class comes with pre-defined CSS properties.
11 Best Material UI Alternatives
Tailwind CSS promotes a modular approach to styling, where devs can combine classes to create unique and responsive designs. It offers utilities for layout, typography, colors, spacing, and more, allowing developers to create consistent and visually appealing interfaces with minimal effort.
Source: www.uxpin.com
Top 10 Best CSS Frameworks for Front-End Developers in 2022
Tailwind enables faster development of the front-end. Instead of a default theme or built-in UI components, you’d get pre-designed widget menus and utility classes to build your website. Tailwind has modular components, and if you make changes in one place, other parts of your code won’t get impacted. Tailwind requires the least amount of learning and is easy to use. You can...
Source: hackr.io

stylelint Reviews

We have no reviews of stylelint yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Tailwind CSS seems to be a lot more popular than stylelint. While we know about 1013 links to Tailwind CSS, we've tracked only 28 mentions of stylelint. 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.

Tailwind CSS mentions (1013)

  • Top 5 Free React UI Libraries to Use in 2025
    Shadcn/ui contains a set of beautifully designed and accessible components, and it works seamlessly with major React frameworks. It’s open-source and has amassed 85.5k (and counting) GitHub stars. It’s built on the shoulders of giants — Radix UI and Tailwind CSS, making it one of the best to work with. Unlike many other UI libraries, the components are not just installed as npm modules, they’re downloaded into... - Source: dev.to / 17 days ago
  • Tailwind vs Linaria: Performance Investigation
    We're going to investigate the difference in performance between Tailwind and Linaria. Tailwind, you already know. And Linaria has been getting quite a lot of traction since styled components went into maintenance mode recently. We'll cover why Linaria is a good choice for this comparison a bit further. - Source: dev.to / 23 days ago
  • How to Integrate Tailwind with 11ty – With Code Examples
    It is a well-known fact that Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework. It lets you style elements directly within your HTML, thanks to pre-defined classes. Unlike other CSS frameworks that offer pre-built components, Tailwind offers these low-level utility classes that let you create your own design system. Thus, this makes crafting unique responsive designs effortless as there is not much to do with custom CSS. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • 🎨 Smooth UI Transitions in HTML with Grains.js, TailwindCSS and g-class directive
    Note: It's best to utilize TailwindCSS to use ready-made styles via their classes. g-class directive has nothing to do with TailwindCSS, however. It only switches class names based on state. After that, you can use whatever you want. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • ## Vibe Coding Adventures: Day 1 — HealthLens AI
    By having the AI building the skeleton of the project, I learn few things. First, this tool is fantastic for building impressive frontend applications with clean, well-structured Tailwind CSS styling. - Source: dev.to / about 2 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 Tailwind CSS and stylelint, you can also consider the following products

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

ESLint - The fully pluggable JavaScript code quality tool

Bulma - Bulma is an open source CSS framework based on Flexbox and built with Sass. It's 100% responsive, fully modular, and available for free.

Prettier - An opinionated code formatter

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

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.