Navigating CSS Frameworks

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about CSS frameworks - what they are, why they’re important, and when (and when not) to use them.

Build modern JAMStack websites in minutes. Stackbit lets you combine any theme, site generator and CMS without complicated integrations. Join the beta today by visiting stackbit.com/syntaxfm.

2:52 - What is a CSS framework?

• Pre-written CSS that takes over the basic styling of your app
• Can include just utilities or lots of styles (minimal to overboard)
• Twitter Bootstrap and Zurb Foundation were the pioneers
• Follow different CSS styles from “functional CSS” to utility-first to BEM

7:33 - Functional (aka Utility) based

• Tachyons
• Tailwind

9:59 - Preprocessor based

• Bootstrap

11:33 - Styled Components based

• Rebass
• Styled Systems
• Facepaint

15:50 - Why use one?

• Makes styling FAST
• Makes hard things easy
• Some, like Bootstrap, have themes
• Keeps your own CSS minimal and organized
• Built on an established system
• Lots of people use the same CSS

19:22 - Why not use one?

• CSS class hell
• Stops you from learning how CSS works
• Size (not all have this problem)
• Brotli, Purify CSS
• You will be overriding a ton of it
• You like exclusively writing the code you need and nothing else

• Jamstack
• Gatsby
• Hugo
• Jekyll
• Bootstrap
• Foundation
• Tailwind CSS
• Tachyons
• Styled System
• REBASS
• Facepaint
• Brotli
• Purify CSS
• Cloudflare

• Scott’s Instagram
• LevelUpTutorials Instagram
• Wes’ Instagram
• Wes’ Twitter
• Wes’ Facebook
• Scott’s Twitter
• Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets