Less vs PreCSS

Overview

Less

Stacks2.9K

Followers1.2K

Votes929

GitHub Stars17.0K

Forks3.4K

PreCSS

Stacks1

Followers5

Votes1

Less vs PreCSS: What are the differences?

<Write Introduction here>

Syntax: Less uses a custom syntax that is similar to CSS, but with added features like variables, mixins, and functions, while PreCSS uses the same syntax as CSS but adds new features through plugins.
Integration with CSS: Less is a separate language that needs to be compiled into CSS, whereas PreCSS can be used alongside regular CSS without the need for compilation, making it more flexible and easier to integrate into projects.
Browser Support: Less has better browser support and compatibility compared to PreCSS, as Less has been around for longer and has a larger user base, leading to better community support and resources.
Features: Less provides a wider range of features out of the box, such as mathematical operations, loops, and conditionals, while PreCSS relies on plugins for additional functionality, making it more lightweight and modular.
Learning Curve: PreCSS is easier for beginners to pick up as it uses a familiar CSS syntax, whereas Less requires learning a new syntax and concepts, which can be more challenging for those new to preprocessor languages.
Performance: Less tends to have faster compilation times compared to PreCSS, as Less files are precompiled into CSS before being served to the browser, while PreCSS plugins may add overhead and affect performance.

In Summary, Less and PreCSS have key differences in syntax, integration with CSS, browser support, features, learning curve, and performance, making them suited for different use cases based on project requirements.

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Manual

Detailed Comparison

Less	PreCSS
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.	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.
-	Sass-like; Variables, conditionals, and iterators; Emerging CSS features
Statistics
GitHub Stars 17.0K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 3.4K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 2.9K	Stacks 1
Followers 1.2K	Followers 5
Votes 929	Votes 1
Pros & Cons
Pros 214 Better than css 177 Variables 141 Mixins 99 Maintainable 79 Used by bootstrap	Pros 1 Sass in PostCSS

What are some alternatives to Less, PreCSS?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Autoprefixer

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.

css-loader

The css-loader interprets @import and url() like import/require() and will resolve them.

Related Comparisons

Less vs PreCSS: What are the differences?

<Write Introduction here>

Syntax: Less uses a custom syntax that is similar to CSS, but with added features like variables, mixins, and functions, while PreCSS uses the same syntax as CSS but adds new features through plugins.
Integration with CSS: Less is a separate language that needs to be compiled into CSS, whereas PreCSS can be used alongside regular CSS without the need for compilation, making it more flexible and easier to integrate into projects.
Browser Support: Less has better browser support and compatibility compared to PreCSS, as Less has been around for longer and has a larger user base, leading to better community support and resources.
Features: Less provides a wider range of features out of the box, such as mathematical operations, loops, and conditionals, while PreCSS relies on plugins for additional functionality, making it more lightweight and modular.
Learning Curve: PreCSS is easier for beginners to pick up as it uses a familiar CSS syntax, whereas Less requires learning a new syntax and concepts, which can be more challenging for those new to preprocessor languages.
Performance: Less tends to have faster compilation times compared to PreCSS, as Less files are precompiled into CSS before being served to the browser, while PreCSS plugins may add overhead and affect performance.

Less vs PreCSS

Overview