Overview

CSS Modules

Stacks132

Followers161

Votes2

node-sass

Stacks87

Followers145

Votes0

GitHub Stars8.5K

Forks1.3K

CSS Modules vs node-sass: What are the differences?

### Introduction
CSS Modules and node-sass are both popular tools used in web development for styling and preprocessing CSS. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two that developers should be aware of.

1. **Syntax:** CSS Modules allows for local scoping of CSS styles by automatically generating unique class names during the build process. On the other hand, node-sass is a preprocessor that allows developers to write CSS using Sass, a CSS extension language that adds features like variables, mixins, and nesting.

2. **Dependencies:** CSS Modules do not rely on any external dependencies and can be used independently in a project. In contrast, node-sass requires the installation of the Node.js package sass to process Sass code into plain CSS.

3. **Performance:** CSS Modules are known for their improved performance as they eliminate global scope and prevent unintended style conflicts. Node-sass, while powerful in terms of functionality, may introduce performance overhead due to Sass compilation during the build process.

4. **Maintainability:** CSS Modules promote better maintainability by encapsulating styles within each component, making it easier to manage and update styles without affecting other parts of the application. Node-sass, with its support for variables and mixins, can also improve maintainability by reducing code duplication and enhancing code organization.

5. **Browser Support:** CSS Modules rely on the CSS Module specification and are compatible with most modern browsers. On the other hand, node-sass compiles Sass code into standard CSS that is supported by a wide range of browsers, ensuring compatibility across various platforms.

6. **Community Adoption:** CSS Modules have gained popularity in the React ecosystem and are widely used in projects leveraging tools like webpack. Node-sass, being a Sass preprocessor, has a strong community following among developers who prefer the enhanced features and flexibility offered by Sass.

In Summary, CSS Modules and node-sass differ in syntax scoping, dependencies, performance, maintainability, browser support, and community adoption.

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Detailed Comparison

CSS Modules	node-sass
It is a CSS file in which all class names and animation names are scoped locally by default. The key words here are scoped locally. With this, your CSS class names become similar to local variables in JavaScript. It goes into the compiler, and CSS comes out the other side.	It is a library that provides binding for Node.js to LibSass, the C version of the popular stylesheet preprocessor, Sass. It allows you to natively compile .scss files to css at incredible speed and automatically via a connect middleware.
-	Natively compile .scss files to css ; Binding for Node.js to LibSass
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 8.5K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.3K
Stacks 132	Stacks 87
Followers 161	Followers 145
Votes 2	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 2 Static rather than compiled at runtime	Cons 1 Needs Microsoft BuildTools and Python 2.7 to install
Integrations
No integrations available	Node.js Sass

What are some alternatives to CSS Modules, node-sass?

Sass

Sass is an extension of CSS3, adding nested rules, variables, mixins, selector inheritance, and more. It's translated to well-formatted, standard CSS using the command line tool or a web-framework plugin.

Less

Less is a CSS pre-processor, meaning that it extends the CSS language, adding features that allow variables, mixins, functions and many other techniques that allow you to make CSS that is more maintainable, themable and extendable.

Stylus

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.

PostCSS

PostCSS is a tool for transforming CSS with JS plugins. These plugins can support variables and mixins, transpile future CSS syntax, inline images, and more.

Bourbon

Bourbon is a library of pure sass mixins that are designed to be simple and easy to use. No configuration required. The mixins aim to be as vanilla as possible, meaning they should be as close to the original CSS syntax as possible.

Compass

The compass core framework is a design-agnostic framework that provides common code that would otherwise be duplicated across other frameworks and extensions.

astroturf

It lets you write CSS in your JavaScript files without adding any runtime layer, and with your existing CSS processing pipeline.

PreCSS

It combines Sass-like syntactical sugar — like variables, conditionals, and iterators — with emerging CSS features — like logical and custom properties, media query ranges, and image sets.

Animate.css

It is a bunch of cool, fun, and cross-browser animations for you to use in your projects. Great for emphasis, home pages, sliders, and general just-add-water-awesomeness.