sass vs less vs stylus vs scss
CSS Preprocessors Comparison
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What's CSS Preprocessors?

CSS preprocessors are scripting languages that extend CSS with variables, nested rules, mixins, functions, and more, allowing developers to write more maintainable and scalable stylesheets. They enable a more dynamic and programmatic approach to styling, which can lead to cleaner and more organized code. By compiling down to standard CSS, preprocessors enhance the capabilities of traditional CSS, making it easier to manage complex styles and improve workflow efficiency.

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sass10,041,9434,0115.66 MB704 days agoMIT
less4,198,01417,0382.86 MB220a month agoApache-2.0
stylus1,738,55011,203366 kB2723 months agoMIT
scss19,312---13 years ago-
Feature Comparison: sass vs less vs stylus vs scss

Syntax Flexibility

  • sass:

    Sass offers two syntaxes: the indented syntax (Sass) and SCSS, which is CSS-compatible. This flexibility allows developers to choose their preferred style. SCSS is particularly popular due to its similarity to CSS, making it easier for new users to adapt.

  • less:

    Less has a syntax that is simple and easy to learn, allowing for nested rules and variables. It uses a CSS-like syntax, which makes it accessible for those familiar with CSS, while also providing features like mixins and functions for more complex styles.

  • stylus:

    Stylus provides a highly flexible syntax that allows for optional colons and semicolons, enabling a more concise style of writing. It supports both a CSS-like syntax and a more minimalist approach, making it adaptable to different coding preferences.

  • scss:

    SCSS is a superset of CSS, meaning any valid CSS is also valid SCSS. This makes it easy to integrate into existing projects. SCSS supports all Sass features, including variables, nesting, and mixins, while maintaining a familiar syntax for CSS developers.

Feature Set

  • sass:

    Sass is known for its extensive feature set, including functions, control directives, and advanced nesting capabilities. This makes it ideal for larger projects where complex styles and maintainability are priorities.

  • less:

    Less offers essential features like variables, mixins, and nested rules, making it suitable for smaller projects. While it lacks some advanced features compared to Sass, it is still powerful enough for many use cases.

  • stylus:

    Stylus is highly extensible and allows for custom functions and middleware, making it suitable for developers who want to create unique styling solutions. Its flexibility in syntax and features makes it a powerful tool for advanced users.

  • scss:

    SCSS inherits all the features of Sass, including variables, mixins, and functions, while providing a syntax that is more familiar to CSS developers. This makes it a great choice for teams transitioning from CSS to a preprocessor.

Community and Ecosystem

  • sass:

    Sass has a large and active community, with extensive documentation and a rich ecosystem of plugins and tools. This support makes it easier to find resources and solutions for common issues, enhancing developer productivity.

  • less:

    Less has a smaller community compared to Sass, but it is still widely used and supported. It integrates well with various build tools and frameworks, making it a viable choice for many projects.

  • stylus:

    Stylus has a smaller community but is appreciated for its flexibility and unique features. While it may not have as many resources as Sass, it still has a dedicated user base that contributes to its development.

  • scss:

    SCSS benefits from the same strong community as Sass, providing access to a wealth of resources, libraries, and frameworks. This makes it easier for developers to adopt and implement SCSS in their projects.

Learning Curve

  • sass:

    Sass has a moderate learning curve due to its extensive feature set. While the basics are easy to grasp, mastering its advanced features may take some time, making it more suitable for developers with some experience in CSS preprocessors.

  • less:

    Less is relatively easy to learn, especially for those with a background in CSS. Its straightforward syntax and features make it accessible for beginners who want to enhance their styling capabilities without a steep learning curve.

  • stylus:

    Stylus has a steeper learning curve due to its flexibility and unique syntax. While it offers powerful features, new users may need time to adapt to its conventions and best practices.

  • scss:

    SCSS is designed to be familiar to CSS developers, making it easier to learn for those transitioning from CSS. Its syntax allows for a gradual learning process, enabling developers to adopt features at their own pace.

Performance

  • sass:

    Sass compiles to CSS during the build process, resulting in fast performance for production environments. Its efficient compilation process helps maintain quick load times, even for large stylesheets.

  • less:

    Less compiles to CSS at runtime, which can lead to slower performance in large projects. However, it can be optimized with tools like Less.js for production use, ensuring efficient loading times.

  • stylus:

    Stylus also compiles to CSS during the build process, offering good performance. Its flexibility allows for optimizations that can enhance loading times, especially in larger projects.

  • scss:

    SCSS benefits from the same efficient compilation process as Sass, ensuring that styles are compiled quickly and effectively. This makes it suitable for projects of all sizes without significant performance drawbacks.

How to Choose: sass vs less vs stylus vs scss
  • sass:

    Choose Sass if you need a powerful and feature-rich preprocessor with advanced capabilities like control directives and functions. Sass is ideal for larger projects where maintainability and scalability are key, especially when using its SCSS syntax for a CSS-like experience.

  • less:

    Choose Less if you prefer a straightforward syntax and want to leverage its features like variables and mixins without a steep learning curve. Less is particularly well-suited for projects that require quick styling without extensive setup.

  • stylus:

    Choose Stylus if you value flexibility and a minimalist syntax. Stylus offers a unique approach with optional colons and semicolons, making it highly customizable. It's great for developers who want to experiment with different styling paradigms.

  • scss:

    Choose SCSS if you want the full power of Sass but prefer a syntax that is more similar to CSS. SCSS allows for a gradual transition from CSS to a more structured approach, making it easier for teams to adopt without a complete rewrite of existing styles.

Similar Npm Packages to sass

sass is a popular CSS preprocessor that extends the capabilities of CSS with features like variables, nested rules, mixins, and more. It allows developers to write more maintainable and organized stylesheets, making it easier to manage complex styles in large projects. While Sass is widely used, there are several alternatives that also offer unique features and benefits. Here are a few notable alternatives:

  • less is a dynamic stylesheet language that extends CSS with features such as variables, mixins, and nested rules, similar to Sass. It is known for its simplicity and ease of use, making it a great choice for developers who want to enhance their CSS without a steep learning curve. Less compiles to standard CSS and can be integrated into various build systems, making it a flexible option for many projects.
  • postcss is a tool for transforming CSS with JavaScript plugins. Unlike traditional preprocessors, PostCSS allows developers to use a wide range of plugins to add features like variables, nesting, and autoprefixing. This modular approach gives developers the flexibility to customize their workflow according to their specific needs. PostCSS is particularly useful for teams that want to adopt modern CSS features while maintaining compatibility with older browsers.
  • stylus is another CSS preprocessor that offers a unique syntax and a variety of features, including variables, mixins, and functions. Stylus is known for its flexibility and minimalism, allowing developers to write CSS in a more concise and expressive way. It supports both an indented syntax and a traditional CSS-like syntax, catering to different developer preferences. Stylus is a good choice for those who appreciate a more expressive and less verbose way of writing styles.

To see how Sass compares with Less, PostCSS, and Stylus, check out the comparison: Comparing less vs postcss vs sass vs stylus.

Similar Npm Packages to less

less is a dynamic stylesheet language that extends CSS with features like variables, nesting, mixins, and functions. It allows developers to write more maintainable and reusable stylesheets, making it easier to manage complex designs. While Less is a popular choice for styling web applications, there are several alternatives that offer similar or enhanced capabilities. Here are a few notable alternatives:

  • cssnano is a CSS minifier that optimizes CSS files for production by removing unnecessary whitespace, comments, and other redundant code. While it doesn't provide the pre-processing features of Less, it is often used in conjunction with other CSS preprocessors to ensure that the final output is as small and efficient as possible. If your primary concern is optimizing CSS for performance, cssnano is an excellent choice.
  • postcss is a tool for transforming CSS with JavaScript plugins. It allows developers to use modern CSS features and preprocessors by applying various plugins that can lint, transpile, and optimize CSS. PostCSS can be configured to work similarly to Less, but it offers more flexibility and a wider range of plugins. If you want to leverage the latest CSS features while maintaining compatibility with older browsers, PostCSS is a powerful option.
  • sass is another popular CSS preprocessor that extends CSS with features like variables, nesting, and mixins. It is known for its robust feature set and has a large community and ecosystem. Sass provides two syntaxes: SCSS, which is a superset of CSS, and the indented syntax. If you are looking for a mature and widely adopted alternative to Less, Sass is a strong contender.
  • stylus is a CSS preprocessor that emphasizes flexibility and simplicity. It allows for a more concise syntax compared to Less and Sass, enabling developers to write styles with less boilerplate code. Stylus supports features like variables, mixins, and functions, making it a powerful tool for styling. If you prefer a more minimalist approach to writing CSS, Stylus might be the right choice for you.

To explore how these packages compare, check out the comparison: Comparing cssnano vs less vs postcss vs sass vs stylus.

Similar Npm Packages to stylus

stylus is a dynamic stylesheet language that is an extension of CSS. It allows developers to write styles in a more concise and expressive manner, providing features like variables, nesting, and mixins. Stylus is known for its flexibility and powerful syntax, making it a popular choice among developers looking to streamline their CSS workflow. While Stylus offers a robust solution for styling web applications, there are several alternatives in the CSS preprocessor landscape. Here are a few noteworthy options:

  • less is a backward-compatible language that extends CSS with dynamic behavior such as variables, mixins, and nested rules. It has a straightforward syntax and is easy to integrate into existing projects. Less is particularly well-suited for developers who want to enhance their CSS without a steep learning curve. Its features allow for better organization and maintainability of styles, making it a solid choice for both small and large projects.

  • postcss is a tool for transforming CSS with JavaScript plugins. Unlike traditional preprocessors, PostCSS allows developers to use various plugins to add features like variables, nesting, and autoprefixing. This flexibility enables developers to customize their workflow according to their specific needs. PostCSS is particularly beneficial for teams that want to adopt modern CSS features while maintaining compatibility with older browsers.

  • sass is one of the most popular CSS preprocessors, offering a rich set of features such as variables, nesting, mixins, and inheritance. Sass has two syntaxes: SCSS, which is a superset of CSS, and the original Sass syntax, which is more concise. Sass is widely used in the industry and has a strong community, making it a reliable choice for developers looking to enhance their CSS capabilities. Its powerful features and robust ecosystem make it suitable for projects of all sizes.

To explore how Stylus compares with Less, PostCSS, and Sass, check out the comparison: Comparing less vs postcss vs sass vs stylus.

Similar Npm Packages to scss

scss is a syntax of Sass (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets), which is a popular preprocessor scripting language that is interpreted or compiled into Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). SCSS extends CSS with features such as variables, nested rules, mixins, and functions, allowing developers to write more maintainable and organized stylesheets. Its syntax is fully compatible with CSS, meaning any valid CSS is also valid SCSS, making it easy for developers to transition from regular CSS to SCSS.

While SCSS is a powerful tool for styling web applications, there are several alternatives that offer similar features:

  • less is a dynamic stylesheet language that extends CSS with features like variables, mixins, and nested rules. It was one of the first CSS preprocessors and has a simple syntax that makes it easy to learn. Less allows for more modular and maintainable stylesheets, and it compiles to standard CSS, making it widely compatible with various browsers. If you prefer a straightforward approach to CSS preprocessing, Less is a solid choice.
  • sass is the original syntax of Sass, which also provides powerful features for writing CSS. While SCSS is a newer syntax that is more CSS-like, Sass uses a more indented syntax that omits curly braces and semicolons. Both syntaxes offer similar functionalities, including variables, nesting, and mixins. If you enjoy a more minimalist style of coding, you might prefer the Sass syntax over SCSS.
  • stylus is another CSS preprocessor that offers a highly flexible and dynamic syntax. Stylus allows for significant customization and provides features like variables, mixins, and conditionals. Its syntax can be more concise than SCSS or Sass, allowing developers to write less code. If you are looking for a preprocessor that offers a high degree of flexibility and customization, Stylus might be the right choice for your project.

To compare these packages, check out the following link: Comparing less vs sass vs scss vs stylus.

README for sass

A pure JavaScript implementation of Sass. Sass makes CSS fun again.

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This package is a distribution of Dart Sass, compiled to pure JavaScript with no native code or external dependencies. It provides a command-line sass executable and a Node.js API.

Usage

You can install Sass globally using npm install -g sass which will provide access to the sass executable. You can also add it to your project using npm install --save-dev sass. This provides the executable as well as a library:

const sass = require('sass');

const result = sass.compile(scssFilename);

// OR

// Note that `compileAsync()` is substantially slower than `compile()`.
const result = await sass.compileAsync(scssFilename);

See the Sass website for full API documentation.

Legacy API

Dart Sass also supports an older JavaScript API that's fully compatible with Node Sass (with a few exceptions listed below), with support for both the render() and renderSync() functions. This API is considered deprecated and will be removed in Dart Sass 2.0.0, so it should be avoided in new projects.

Sass's support for the legacy JavaScript API has the following limitations:

  • Only the "expanded" and "compressed" values of outputStyle are supported.

  • Dart Sass doesn't support the precision option. Dart Sass defaults to a sufficiently high precision for all existing browsers, and making this customizable would make the code substantially less efficient.

  • Dart Sass doesn't support the sourceComments option. Source maps are the recommended way of locating the origin of generated selectors.

See Also

  • Dart Sass, from which this package is compiled, can be used either as a stand-alone executable or as a Dart library. Running Dart Sass on the Dart VM is substantially faster than running the pure JavaScript version, so this may be appropriate for performance-sensitive applications. The Dart API is also (currently) more user-friendly than the JavaScript API. See the Dart Sass README for details on how to use it.

  • Node Sass, which is a wrapper around LibSass, the C++ implementation of Sass. Node Sass supports the same API as this package and is also faster (although it's usually a little slower than Dart Sass). However, it requires a native library which may be difficult to install, and it's generally slower to add features and fix bugs.

Behavioral Differences from Ruby Sass

There are a few intentional behavioral differences between Dart Sass and Ruby Sass. These are generally places where Ruby Sass has an undesired behavior, and it's substantially easier to implement the correct behavior than it would be to implement compatible behavior. These should all have tracking bugs against Ruby Sass to update the reference behavior.

  1. @extend only accepts simple selectors, as does the second argument of selector-extend(). See issue 1599.

  2. Subject selectors are not supported. See issue 1126.

  3. Pseudo selector arguments are parsed as <declaration-value>s rather than having a more limited custom parsing. See issue 2120.

  4. The numeric precision is set to 10. See issue 1122.

  5. The indented syntax parser is more flexible: it doesn't require consistent indentation across the whole document. See issue 2176.

  6. Colors do not support channel-by-channel arithmetic. See issue 2144.

  7. Unitless numbers aren't == to unit numbers with the same value. In addition, map keys follow the same logic as ==-equality. See issue 1496.

  8. rgba() and hsla() alpha values with percentage units are interpreted as percentages. Other units are forbidden. See issue 1525.

  9. Too many variable arguments passed to a function is an error. See issue 1408.

  10. Allow @extend to reach outside a media query if there's an identical @extend defined outside that query. This isn't tracked explicitly, because it'll be irrelevant when issue 1050 is fixed.

  11. Some selector pseudos containing placeholder selectors will be compiled where they wouldn't be in Ruby Sass. This better matches the semantics of the selectors in question, and is more efficient. See issue 2228.

  12. The old-style :property value syntax is not supported in the indented syntax. See issue 2245.

  13. The reference combinator is not supported. See issue 303.

  14. Universal selector unification is symmetrical. See issue 2247.

  15. @extend doesn't produce an error if it matches but fails to unify. See issue 2250.

  16. Dart Sass currently only supports UTF-8 documents. We'd like to support more, but Dart currently doesn't support them. See dart-lang/sdk#11744, for example.

Disclaimer: this is not an official Google product.

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