State of CSS in 2025 with Adam Argyle and Kevin Powell

Oct 1, 2025

Adam Argyle, a design engineer at Shopify and CSS advocate, joins Kevin Powell, a CSS educator and content creator, to explore the dynamic landscape of CSS in 2025. They delve into the latest survey results, highlighting new features like nesting and container queries that are reshaping web styling. The duo discusses the practicality of functions and the significance of innovations like relative color syntax and app property. They also contemplate the future of CSS, envisioning exciting possibilities like motion blur and state queries.

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INSIGHT

Why CSS Still Wins

CSS remains dominant because it's a composable, declarative language that browsers execute natively.
New native features let CSS handle edge cases that tooling and frameworks struggle to cover.

INSIGHT

Native Features Outpace Utilities

Native CSS features now solve problems frameworks and utility libraries can't easily handle.
This constrains what tools like Tailwind can cover as browsers introduce higher-level capabilities.

ADVICE

Learn CSS Fundamentals First

Learn how CSS works rather than trying to replace it with JavaScript patterns.
Understanding CSS fundamentals reduces confusion and prevents unnecessary tooling.

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In this episode of PodRocket, Adam Argyle and Kevin Powell discuss the results of the latest State of CSS survey and share how new capabilities like functions, mixins, nesting, and container queries are changing the way developers approach styling. We dive into the ongoing conversation around Tailwind and pre-processors, and look at the practical impact of features such as scroll driven animations, view transitions, and cascade layers. Adam and Kevin also explain how advances like relative color syntax and app property are making CSS variables more dynamic and reliable. Along the way, we touch on browser interoperability and imagine what’s ahead for CSS, from motion blur to fit text and beyond.

Links

Adam Argyle
Website: https://nerdy.dev
X: https://x.com/argyleink
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamargyle
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGr3ZMcV5jke40_Wrv3fNA
GitHub: https://github.com/argyleink

Kevin Powell
Website: https://www.kevinpowell.co
X: https://x.com/kevinjpowell
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/kevinpowell.co
Mastodon: front-end.social/@kevinpowell
Github: https://github.com/kevin-powell
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kevinpowell
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/kevinpowellcss

Resources

State of CSS 2025: https://2025.stateofcss.com

Chapters

01:00 Why CSS Remains Irreplaceable
05:00 Misunderstandings About CSS
09:00 Is CSS a Programming Language
12:00 Pre-processors, Post-processors, and Native Features
15:00 Too Many Features in CSS
18:00 The CSS Learning Curve and Growth Cycle
19:30 Resources for Keeping Up with CSS
20:30 New CSS Functions Explained
23:00 Complexity and Abstractions in CSS
24:00 Browser Collaboration and Interop
30:00 Using New CSS Features in Production
36:00 The App Property Feature
41:00 Future CSS Features Wishlist
46:00 Final Thoughts on CSS in 2025
48:00 Outro and Guest Links

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Special Guests: Adam Argyle and Kevin Powell.