gridstack vs vue-grid-layout vs muuri vs packery
JavaScript Grid Layout Libraries Comparison
1 Year
gridstackvue-grid-layoutmuuripackerySimilar Packages:
What's JavaScript Grid Layout Libraries?

JavaScript grid layout libraries provide developers with tools to create responsive and dynamic grid layouts for web applications. These libraries facilitate the arrangement of elements in a grid format, allowing for drag-and-drop functionality, fluid resizing, and customizable layouts. They are essential for building modern web interfaces that require flexibility and responsiveness to various screen sizes and user interactions.

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gridstack220,8407,2012.95 MB503 days agoMIT
vue-grid-layout36,2517,1757.12 MB267-MIT
muuri25,36910,8521 MB116-MIT
packery14,1014,164749 kB55-GPL-3.0
Feature Comparison: gridstack vs vue-grid-layout vs muuri vs packery

Drag-and-Drop Functionality

  • gridstack:

    Gridstack offers built-in drag-and-drop functionality, allowing users to rearrange grid items easily. It supports responsive layouts and can handle item resizing, making it suitable for dashboard applications.

  • vue-grid-layout:

    Vue Grid Layout supports drag-and-drop functionality, enabling users to rearrange items within a responsive grid. It is built for Vue.js, ensuring a seamless integration with Vue's reactivity.

  • muuri:

    Muuri provides advanced drag-and-drop capabilities with customizable animations. It allows for dynamic item positioning and supports filtering and sorting, making it versatile for various applications.

  • packery:

    Packery enables drag-and-drop reordering of items in a masonry layout. It allows users to move items around freely, creating a fluid and visually appealing arrangement of elements.

Layout Flexibility

  • gridstack:

    Gridstack allows for flexible grid layouts that adapt to various screen sizes, with manual or automatic breakpoint support. It supports nested grids and can easily handle different item sizes, making it suitable for advanced responsive designs.

  • vue-grid-layout:

    Vue Grid Layout offers flexibility in defining grid items and their sizes. It supports responsive design, allowing layouts to adapt to different devices seamlessly.

  • muuri:

    Muuri offers high layout flexibility with a grid system that can adapt to different item sizes and arrangements. It allows for fluid resizing and can handle complex layouts with ease.

  • packery:

    Packery provides a masonry-style layout that allows items of varying sizes to fit together without a fixed grid structure. This flexibility is ideal for visual content like galleries and portfolios.

Performance

  • gridstack:

    Gridstack is optimized for performance, handling large numbers of grid items without significant lag. Its lightweight design ensures smooth interactions even with complex layouts.

  • vue-grid-layout:

    Vue Grid Layout is designed for performance within Vue.js applications, ensuring smooth interactions and efficient rendering of grid items. It leverages Vue's reactivity for optimal performance.

  • muuri:

    Muuri is designed for performance, utilizing efficient algorithms for layout calculations. It provides smooth animations and quick item repositioning, making it suitable for dynamic applications.

  • packery:

    Packery performs well with a masonry layout, efficiently calculating item positions. It is optimized for rendering speed, ensuring a responsive user experience even with many items.

Integration and Ecosystem

  • gridstack:

    Gridstack is pure typescript with no external dependency. It can be easily integrated with various frameworks and libraries, making one of the few versatile for different projects. It included an Angular component wrapper out of the box, with many React and Vue examples given and more.

  • vue-grid-layout:

    Vue Grid Layout is built for Vue.js, ensuring a smooth integration with Vue's ecosystem. It leverages Vue's reactivity and component structure for optimal performance.

  • muuri:

    Muuri is framework-agnostic and can be integrated into any JavaScript application. Its flexibility allows it to work seamlessly with various front-end frameworks.

  • packery:

    Packery is also framework-agnostic, allowing developers to use it with any JavaScript project. It can be easily integrated into existing layouts without major modifications.

Ease of Use

  • gridstack:

    Gridstack is user-friendly, with a simple API that allows developers to quickly implement grid layouts. Its documentation provides clear examples and guidance for easy integration.

  • vue-grid-layout:

    Vue Grid Layout is designed for ease of use in Vue.js applications, with a simple API and comprehensive documentation. It includes examples that demonstrate how to create responsive grid layouts.

  • muuri:

    Muuri offers a straightforward API, making it easy to implement complex layouts. Its documentation includes examples and use cases to help developers get started quickly.

  • packery:

    Packery is relatively easy to use, with a simple setup process. Its documentation provides clear instructions for integrating it into projects, making it accessible for developers of all levels.

How to Choose: gridstack vs vue-grid-layout vs muuri vs packery
  • gridstack:

    Choose Gridstack if you need a grid layout with drag-and-drop functionality and responsive design. It is particularly suitable for dashboards and applications that require a grid system where items are of different size, need responsive layouts, require more complicated nested layouts, or need to be framework neutral.

  • vue-grid-layout:

    Select Vue Grid Layout if you are developing a Vue.js application and require a grid layout that supports drag-and-drop and responsive design. It is tailored for Vue and integrates seamlessly with its ecosystem.

  • muuri:

    Select Muuri for a highly customizable and performant grid layout that supports drag-and-drop, filtering, and sorting. It is ideal for applications where layout flexibility and animation effects are important.

  • packery:

    Opt for Packery if you want a grid layout that allows for a masonry-style arrangement of items. It is perfect for galleries or layouts where items of varying sizes need to fit together without fixed rows or columns.

README for gridstack

gridstack.js

NPM version Coverage Status downloads

Mobile-friendly modern Typescript library for dashboard layout and creation. Making a drag-and-drop, multi-column responsive dashboard has never been easier. Has multiple bindings and works great with Angular (included), React, Vue, Knockout.js, Ember and others (see frameworks section).

Inspired by no-longer maintained gridster, built with love.

Check http://gridstackjs.com and these demos.

If you find this lib useful, please donate PayPal (use “send to a friend” to avoid 3% fee) or Venmo (adumesny) and help support it!

Donate Donate

Join us on Slack: https://gridstackjs.slack.com

Table of Contents generated with DocToc

Demo and API Documentation

Please visit http://gridstackjs.com and these demos, and complete API documentation

Usage

Install

NPM version

yarn add gridstack
// or
npm install --save gridstack

Include

ES6 or Typescript

import 'gridstack/dist/gridstack.min.css';
import { GridStack } from 'gridstack';

Alternatively (single combined file, notice the -all.js) in html

<link href="node_modules/gridstack/dist/gridstack.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<script src="node_modules/gridstack/dist/gridstack-all.js"></script>

Note: IE support was dropped in v2, but restored in v4.4 by an external contributor (I have no interest in testing+supporting obsolete browser so this likely will break again in the future). You can use the es5 files and polyfill (larger) for older browser instead. For example:

<link href="node_modules/gridstack/dist/gridstack.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<script src="node_modules/gridstack/dist/es5/gridstack-poly.js"></script>
<script src="node_modules/gridstack/dist/es5/gridstack-all.js"></script>

Basic usage

creating items dynamically...

// ...in your HTML
<div class="grid-stack"></div>

// ...in your script
var grid = GridStack.init();
grid.addWidget({w: 2, content: 'item 1'});

... or creating from list

// using serialize data instead of .addWidget()
const serializedData = [
  {x: 0, y: 0, w: 2, h: 2},
  {x: 2, y: 3, w: 3, content: 'item 2'},
  {x: 1, y: 3}
];

grid.load(serializedData);

... or DOM created items

// ...in your HTML
<div class="grid-stack">
  <div class="grid-stack-item">
    <div class="grid-stack-item-content">Item 1</div>
  </div>
  <div class="grid-stack-item" gs-w="2">
    <div class="grid-stack-item-content">Item 2 wider</div>
  </div>
</div>

// ...in your script
GridStack.init();

...or see list of all API and options available.

see jsfiddle sample as running example too.

Requirements

GridStack no longer requires external dependencies as of v1 (lodash was removed in v0.5 and jquery API in v1). v3 is a complete HTML5 re-write removing need for jquery. v6 is native mouse and touch event for mobile support, and no longer have jquery-ui version. All you need to include now is gridstack-all.js and gridstack.min.css (layouts are done using CSS column based %).

Specific frameworks

search for 'gridstack' under NPM for latest, more to come...

Extend Library

You can easily extend or patch gridstack with code like this:

// extend gridstack with our own custom method
GridStack.prototype.printCount = function() {
  console.log('grid has ' + this.engine.nodes.length + ' items');
};

let grid = GridStack.init();

// you can now call
grid.printCount();

Extend Engine

You can now (5.1+) easily create your own layout engine to further customize your usage. Here is a typescript example

import { GridStack, GridStackEngine, GridStackNode, GridStackMoveOpts } from 'gridstack';

class CustomEngine extends GridStackEngine {

  /** refined this to move the node to the given new location */
  public override moveNode(node: GridStackNode, o: GridStackMoveOpts): boolean {
    // keep the same original X and Width and let base do it all...
    o.x = node.x;
    o.w = node.w;
    return super.moveNode(node, o);
  }
}

GridStack.registerEngine(CustomEngine); // globally set our custom class

Change grid columns

GridStack makes it very easy if you need [1-12] columns out of the box (default is 12), but you always need 2 things if you need to customize this:

  1. Change the column grid option when creating a grid to your number N
GridStack.init( {column: N} );
  1. also include gridstack-extra.css if N < 12 (else custom CSS - see next). Without these, things will not render/work correctly.
<link href="node_modules/gridstack/dist/gridstack.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<link href="node_modules/gridstack/dist/gridstack-extra.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>

<div class="grid-stack">...</div>

Note: class .grid-stack-N will automatically be added and we include gridstack-extra.min.css which defines CSS for grids with custom [2-11] columns. Anything more and you'll need to generate the SASS/CSS yourself (see next).

See example: 2 grids demo with 6 columns

Custom columns CSS

If you need > 12 columns or want to generate the CSS manually you will need to generate CSS rules for .grid-stack-item[gs-w="X"] and .grid-stack-item[gs-x="X"].

For instance for 4-column grid you need CSS to be:

.gs-4 > .grid-stack-item[gs-x="1"]  { left: 25% }
.gs-4 > .grid-stack-item[gs-x="2"]  { left: 50% }
.gs-4 > .grid-stack-item[gs-x="3"]  { left: 75% }

.gs-4 > .grid-stack-item { width: 25% }
.gs-4 > .grid-stack-item[gs-w="2"]  { width: 50% }
.gs-4 > .grid-stack-item[gs-w="3"]  { width: 75% }
.gs-4 > .grid-stack-item[gs-w="4"]  { width: 100% }

Better yet, here is a SCSS code snippet, you can use sites like sassmeister.com to generate the CSS for you instead:

$columns: 20;
@function fixed($float) {
  @return round($float * 1000) / 1000; // total 2+3 digits being %
}
.gs-#{$columns} > .grid-stack-item {

  width: fixed(100% / $columns);

  @for $i from 1 through $columns - 1 {
    &[gs-x='#{$i}'] { left: fixed((100% / $columns) * $i); }
    &[gs-w='#{$i+1}'] { width: fixed((100% / $columns) * ($i+1)); }
  }
}

you can also use the SCSS src/gridstack-extra.scss included in NPM package and modify to add more columns.

Sample gulp command for 30 columns:

gulp.src('node_modules/gridstack/dist/src/gridstack-extra.scss')
        .pipe(replace('$start: 2 !default;','$start: 30;'))
        .pipe(replace('$end: 11 !default;','$end: 30;'))
        .pipe(sass({outputStyle: 'compressed'}))
        .pipe(rename({extname: '.min.css'}))
        .pipe(gulp.dest('dist/css'))

Override resizable/draggable options

You can override default resizable/draggable options. For instance to enable other then bottom right resizing handle you can init gridstack like:

GridStack.init({
  resizable: {
    handles: 'e,se,s,sw,w'
  }
});

Touch devices support

gridstack v6+ now support mobile out of the box, with the addition of native touch event (along with mouse event) for drag&drop and resize. Older versions (3.2+) required the jq version with added touch punch, but doesn't work well with nested grids.

This option is now the default:

let options = {
  alwaysShowResizeHandle: 'mobile' // true if we're on mobile devices
};
GridStack.init(options);

See example.

Migrating

Migrating to v0.6

starting in 0.6.x change event are no longer sent (for pretty much most nodes!) when an item is just added/deleted unless it also changes other nodes (was incorrect and causing inefficiencies). You may need to track added|removed events if you didn't and relied on the old broken behavior.

Migrating to v1

v1.0.0 removed Jquery from the API and external dependencies, which will require some code changes. Here is a list of the changes:

  1. see previous step if not on v0.6 already

  2. your code only needs to import GridStack from 'gridstack' or include gridstack.all.js and gristack.css (don't include other JS) and is recommended you do that as internal dependencies will change over time. If you are jquery based, see jquery app section.

  3. code change:

OLD initializing code + adding a widget + adding an event:

// initialization returned Jquery element, requiring second call to get GridStack var
var grid = $('.grid-stack').gridstack(opts?).data('gridstack');

// returned Jquery element
grid.addWidget($('<div><div class="grid-stack-item-content"> test </div></div>'), undefined, undefined, 2, undefined, true);

// jquery event handler
$('.grid-stack').on('added', function(e, items) {/* items contains info */});

// grid access after init
var grid = $('.grid-stack').data('gridstack');

NEW

// element identifier defaults to '.grid-stack', returns the grid
// Note: for Typescript use window.GridStack.init() until next native 2.x TS version
var grid = GridStack.init(opts?, element?);

// returns DOM element
grid.addWidget('<div><div class="grid-stack-item-content"> test </div></div>', {width: 2});
// Note: in 3.x it's ever simpler 
// grid.addWidget({w:2, content: 'test'})

// event handler
grid.on('added', function(e, items) {/* items contains info */});

// grid access after init
var grid = el.gridstack; // where el = document.querySelector('.grid-stack') or other ways...

Other rename changes

`GridStackUI` --> `GridStack`
`GridStackUI.GridStackEngine` --> `GridStack.Engine`
`grid.container` (jquery grid wrapper) --> `grid.el` // (grid DOM element)
`grid.grid` (GridStackEngine) --> `grid.engine`
`grid.setColumn(N)` --> `grid.column(N)` and `grid.column()` // to get value, old API still supported though

Recommend looking at the many samples for more code examples.

Migrating to v2

make sure to read v1 migration first!

v2 is a Typescript rewrite of 1.x, removing all jquery events, using classes and overall code cleanup to support ES6 modules. Your code might need to change from 1.x

  1. In general methods that used no args (getter) vs setter can't be used in TS when the arguments differ (set/get are also not function calls so API would have changed). Instead we decided to have all set methods return GridStack to they can be chain-able (ex: grid.float(true).cellHeight(10).column(6)). Also legacy methods that used to take many parameters will now take a single object (typically GridStackOptions or GridStackWidget).
`addWidget(el, x, y, width, height)` --> `addWidget(el, {with: 2})`
// Note: in 2.1.x you can now just do addWidget({with: 2, content: "text"})
`float()` --> `getFloat()` // to get value
`cellHeight()` --> `getCellHeight()` // to get value
`verticalMargin` --> `margin` // grid options and API that applies to all 4 sides.
`verticalMargin()` --> `getMargin()` // to get value
  1. event signatures are generic and not jquery-ui dependent anymore. gsresizestop has been removed as resizestop|dragstop are now called after the DOM attributes have been updated.

  2. oneColumnMode would trigger when window.width < 768px by default. We now check for grid width instead (more correct and supports nesting). You might need to adjust grid oneColumnSize or disableOneColumnMode.

Note: 2.x no longer support legacy IE11 and older due to using more compact ES6 output and typecsript native code. You will need to stay at 1.x

Migrating to v3

make sure to read v2 migration first!

v3 has a new HTML5 drag&drop plugging (63k total, all native code), while still allowing you to use the legacy jquery-ui version instead (188k), or a new static grid version (34k, no user drag&drop but full API support). You will need to decide which version to use as gridstack.all.js no longer exist (same is now gridstack-jq.js) - see include info.

NOTE: HTML5 version is almost on parity with the old jquery-ui based drag&drop. the containment (prevent a child from being dragged outside it's parent) and revert (not clear what it is for yet) are not yet implemented in initial release of v3.0.0.
Also mobile devices don't support h5 drag events (will need to handle touch) whereas v3.2 jq version now now supports out of the box (see v3.2 release)

Breaking changes:

  1. include (as mentioned) need to change

  2. GridStack.update(el, opt) now takes single GridStackWidget options instead of only supporting (x,y,w,h) BUT legacy call in JS will continue working the same for now. That method is a complete re-write and does the right constrain and updates now for all the available params.

  3. locked(), move(), resize(), minWidth(), minHeight(), maxWidth(), maxHeight() methods are hidden from Typescript (JS can still call for now) as they are just 1 liner wrapper around update(el, opt) anyway and will go away soon. (ex: move(el, x, y) => update(el, {x, y}))

  4. item attribute like data-gs-min-width is now gs-min-w. We removed 'data-' from all attributes, and shorten 'width|height' to just 'w|h' to require less typing and more efficient (2k saved in .js alone!).

  5. GridStackWidget used in most API width|height|minWidth|minHeight|maxWidth|maxHeight are now shorter w|h|minW|minH|maxW|maxH as well

Migrating to v4

make sure to read v3 migration first!

v4 is a complete re-write of the collision and drag in/out heuristics to fix some very long standing request & bugs. It also greatly improved usability. Read the release notes for more detail.

Unlikely Breaking Changes (internal usage):

  1. removeTimeout was removed (feedback over trash will be immediate - actual removal still on mouse up)

  2. the following GridStackEngine methods changed (used internally, doesn't affect GridStack public API)

// moved to 3 methods with new option params to support new code and pixel coverage check
`collision()` -> `collide(), collideAll(), collideCoverage()`
`moveNodeCheck(node, x, y, w, h)` -> `moveNodeCheck(node, opt: GridStackMoveOpts)`
`isNodeChangedPosition(node, x, y, w, h)` -> `changedPosConstrain(node, opt: GridStackMoveOpts)`
`moveNode(node, x, y, w, h, noPack)` -> `moveNode(node, opt: GridStackMoveOpts)`
  1. removed old obsolete (v0.6-v1 methods/attrs) getGridHeight(), verticalMargin, data-gs-current-height, locked(), maxWidth(), minWidth(), maxHeight(), minHeight(), move(), resize()

Migrating to v5

make sure to read v4 migration first!

v5 does not have any breaking changes from v4, but a focus on nested grids in h5 mode: You can now drag in/out of parent into nested child, with new API parameters values. See the release notes.

Migrating to v6

the API did not really change from v5, but a complete re-write of Drag&Drop to use native mouseevent (instead of HTML draggable=true which is buggy on Mac Safari, and doesn't work on mobile devices) and touchevent (mobile), and we no longer have jquery ui option (wasn't working well for nested grids, didn't want to maintain legacy lib).

The main difference is you only need to include gridstack.js and get D&D (desktop and mobile) out of the box for the same size as h5 version.

Migrating to v7

New addition, no API breakage per say. See release notes about creating sub-grids on the fly.

Migrating to v8

Possible breaking change if you use nested grid JSON format, or original Angular wrapper, or relied on specific CSS paths. Also target is now ES2020 (see release notes).

  • GridStackOptions.subGrid -> GridStackOptions.subGridOpts rename. We now have GridStackWidget.subGridOpts vs GridStackNode.subGrid (was both types which is error prone)
  • GridStackOptions.addRemoveCB -> GridStack.addRemoveCB is now global instead of grid option
  • removed GridStackOptions.dragInOptions since GridStack.setupDragIn() has it replaced since 4.0
  • remove GridStackOptions.minWidth obsolete since 5.1, use oneColumnSize instead
  • CSS rules removed .grid-stack prefix for anything already gs based, 12 column (default) now uses .gs-12, extra.css is less than 1/4th it original size!, gs-min|max_w|h attribute no longer written (but read)

Migrating to v9

New addition - see release notes about sizeToContent feature. Possible break:

  • GridStack.onParentResize() is now called onResize() as grid now directly track size change, no longer involving parent per say to tell us anything. Note sure why it was public.

Migrating to v10

we now support much richer responsive behavior with GridStackOptions.columnOpts including any breakpoint width:column pairs, or automatic column sizing.

breaking change:

  • disableOneColumnMode, oneColumnSize have been removed (thought we temporary convert if you have them). use columnOpts: { breakpoints: [{w:768, c:1}] } for the same behavior.
  • 1 column mode switch is no longer by default (columnOpts is not defined) as too many new users had issues. Instead set it explicitly (see above).
  • oneColumnModeDomSort has been removed. Planning to support per column layouts at some future times. TBD

Migrating to v11

  • All instances of el.innerHTML = 'some content' have been removed for security reason as it opens up some potential for accidental XSS.

  • Side panel drag&drop complete rewrite.

  • new lazy loading option

Breaking change:

  • if you code relies on GridStackWidget.content with real HTML (like a few demos) it is up to you to do this:
// NOTE: REAL apps would sanitize-html or DOMPurify before blinding setting innerHTML. see #2736
GridStack.renderCB = function(el, w) {
  el.innerHTML = w.content;
};
  • V11 add new GridStack.renderCB that is called for you to create the widget content (entire GridStackWidget is passed so you can use id or some other field as logic) while GS creates the 2 needed parent divs + classes, unlike GridStack.addRemoveCB which doesn't create anything for you. Both can be handy for Angular/React/Vue frameworks.
  • addWidget(w: GridStackWidget) is now the only supported format, no more string content passing. You will need to create content yourself (Util.createWidgetDivs() can be used to create parent divs) then call makeWidget(el) instead.

Potential breaking change:

  • BIG overall to how sidepanel helper drag&drop is done:
  1. clone() helper is now passed full HTML element dragged, not an event on grid-stack-item-content so can clone or set attr at the top.
  2. use any class/structure you want for side panel items (see two.html)
  3. GridStack.setupDragIn() now support associating a GridStackWidget for each sidepanel that will be used to define what to create on drop!
  4. if no GridStackWidget is defined, the helper will now be inserted as is, and NOT original sidepanel item.
  5. support DOM gs- attr as well as gridstacknode JSON (see two.html) alternatives.

jQuery Application

This is old and no longer apply to v6+. You'll need to use v5.1.1 and before

import 'gridstack/dist/gridstack.min.css';
import { GridStack } from 'gridstack';
import 'gridstack/dist/jq/gridstack-dd-jqueryui';

Note: jquery & jquery-ui are imported by name, so you will have to specify their location in your webpack (or equivalent) config file, which means you can possibly bring your own version

  alias: {
    'jquery': 'gridstack/dist/jq/jquery.js',
    'jquery-ui': 'gridstack/dist/jq/jquery-ui.js',
    'jquery.ui': 'gridstack/dist/jq/jquery-ui.js',
    'jquery.ui.touch-punch': 'gridstack/dist/jq/jquery.ui.touch-punch.js',
  },

Alternatively (single combined file) in html

<link href="node_modules/gridstack/dist/gridstack.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
<!-- HTML5 drag&drop (70k) -->
<script src="node_modules/gridstack/dist/gridstack-h5.js"></script>
<!-- OR jquery-ui drag&drop (195k) -->
<script src="node_modules/gridstack/dist/gridstack-jq.js"></script>
<!-- OR static grid (40k) -->
<script src="node_modules/gridstack/dist/gridstack-static.js"></script>

We have a native HTML5 drag'n'drop through the plugin system (default), but the jquery-ui version can be used instead. It will bundle jquery (3.5.1) + jquery-ui (1.13.1 minimal drag|drop|resize) + jquery-ui-touch-punch (1.0.8 for mobile support) in gridstack-jq.js.

NOTE: in v4, v3: we ES6 module import jquery & jquery-ui by name, so you need to specify location of those .js files, which means you might be able to bring your own version as well. See the include instructions.

NOTE: in v1.x IFF you want to use gridstack-jq instead and your app needs to bring your own JQ version, you should instead include gridstack-poly.min.js (optional IE support) + gridstack.min.js + gridstack.jQueryUI.min.js after you import your JQ libs. But note that there are issue with jQuery and ES6 import (see 1306).

As for events, you can still use $(".grid-stack").on(...) for the version that uses jquery-ui for things we don't support.

Changes

View our change log here.

Usage Trend

Usage Trend of gridstack

NPM Usage Trend of gridstack

The Team

gridstack.js is currently maintained by Alain Dumesny, before that Dylan Weiss, originally created by Pavel Reznikov. We appreciate all contributors for help.