Overview

Autoprefixer

Stacks2.4K

Followers54

Votes0

PostCSS

Stacks1.6K

Followers546

Votes49

GitHub Stars28.9K

Forks1.6K

Autoprefixer vs PostCSS: What are the differences?

Introduction

In web development, Autoprefixer and PostCSS are two popular tools used to enhance the process of writing CSS. Autoprefixer is a plugin for PostCSS that automatically adds vendor prefixes to CSS rules, while PostCSS is a tool that allows developers to transform CSS using JavaScript plugins. Despite being related, there are key differences between Autoprefixer and PostCSS that developers should be aware of.

Browser Compatibility: Autoprefixer focuses specifically on adding vendor prefixes to CSS rules to ensure cross-browser compatibility. It uses data from Can I Use to determine which prefixes are necessary for the targeted browsers. In contrast, PostCSS is a more general tool that can be used for various transformations, including but not limited to adding prefixes. It gives developers more flexibility to perform a wide range of CSS transformations beyond vendor prefixing.
Configuration: Autoprefixer has a straightforward configuration approach. It uses browser compatibility data to apply appropriate prefixes automatically, avoiding the need for manual configuration. On the other hand, PostCSS has a more configurable nature. It allows developers to choose and configure specific plugins according to their project needs, giving them more control over the transformation process.
Dependencies: Autoprefixer is a plugin that depends on PostCSS. It cannot function without PostCSS as it piggybacks on PostCSS's functionality to perform its prefixing task. In contrast, PostCSS is a standalone tool that can be used independently to process CSS, even without using the Autoprefixer plugin. PostCSS offers a wide range of plugins beyond Autoprefixer, which further extends its capabilities.
Ease of Use: Autoprefixer is designed to be user-friendly and easy to integrate into existing build processes. Once configured, it automatically applies prefixes during the build process, reducing manual effort and potential human error. Conversely, PostCSS requires more setup and configuration for each desired transformation. Developers need to install and configure specific plugins to achieve the desired transformation in addition to additional setup steps.
Community Support: Both Autoprefixer and PostCSS have active and supportive communities. However, Autoprefixer benefits from being a widely adopted and recommended tool, particularly for prefixing CSS rules. Its community provides regular updates and contributes to maintaining compatibility with the latest CSS standards. PostCSS has a more diverse range of plugins and consequently a larger community overall, with developers contributing to various aspects of CSS transformation beyond just prefixing.
Flexibility: Autoprefixer simplifies the process of adding vendor prefixes by automatically determining which ones are required based on browser compatibility data. While this simplifies and streamlines the development process, it may limit flexibility as developers have less control over the prefixes applied. PostCSS, being a more general tool, offers greater flexibility regarding the transformations that can be applied to CSS, giving developers the freedom to choose plugins and configure them according to their unique requirements.

In summary, Autoprefixer is a specialized tool focusing on vendor prefixing, providing a user-friendly and automated approach, while PostCSS is a more versatile tool with a broader scope, allowing developers to perform various CSS transformations by leveraging a wide range of plugins.

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Advice on Autoprefixer, PostCSS

Anonymous

CEO at ME!

Jun 17, 2020

Needs adviceon

Sass

Stylus

PostCSS

Originally, I was going to start using @{Sass}|tool:1171| with Parcel, but then I learned about @{Stylus}|tool:1172|, which looked interesting because it can get the property values of something directly instead of through variables, and @{PostCSS}|tool:3339|, which looked interesting because you can customize your Pre/Post-processing. Which tool would you recommend?

547k views547k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Autoprefixer	PostCSS
It is a CSS post processor. It combs through compiled CSS files to add or remove vendor prefixes like -webkit and -moz after checking the code.	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.
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 28.9K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 1.6K
Stacks 2.4K	Stacks 1.6K
Followers 54	Followers 546
Votes 0	Votes 49
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet	Pros 21 The "babel" of CSS 15 Customizable 8 Autoprefixer 2 Variables 1 Mixins

What are some alternatives to Autoprefixer, PostCSS?

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.

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.

CSS Modules

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.

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.