CSS Linting Tools Comparison
stylelint vs sass-lint
1 Year
stylelintsass-lintSimilar Packages:
What's CSS Linting Tools?

CSS linting tools are essential for maintaining code quality and consistency in stylesheets. They analyze CSS code for potential errors, enforce coding standards, and help developers adhere to best practices. By using linting tools, developers can catch issues early in the development process, improve maintainability, and ensure a more consistent styling approach across projects. Both 'sass-lint' and 'stylelint' serve this purpose but cater to different needs and use cases in the CSS ecosystem.

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stylelint4,965,77411,0671.51 MB15611 days agoMIT
sass-lint88,4881,767-2746 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: stylelint vs sass-lint

Language Support

  • stylelint:

    Stylelint supports a broad range of CSS syntaxes, including standard CSS, SCSS, and Less. This flexibility allows developers to use it across various projects regardless of the preprocessor, making it a more universal choice for CSS linting.

  • sass-lint:

    Sass-lint is designed exclusively for Sass files, providing specific rules and checks that cater to Sass syntax and features. This makes it highly effective for projects that use Sass, ensuring that all Sass-specific constructs are properly validated.

Customization

  • stylelint:

    Stylelint excels in customization, allowing developers to create their own rules, extend existing ones, and configure the linter to suit specific project needs. Its plugin architecture enables integration with various tools and frameworks, enhancing its adaptability.

  • sass-lint:

    Sass-lint offers a set of predefined rules that can be customized to fit the project's coding standards. However, its customization options are somewhat limited compared to more extensive tools, focusing primarily on Sass-specific rules.

Community and Ecosystem

  • stylelint:

    Stylelint boasts a large and active community, with numerous plugins and integrations available. This extensive ecosystem allows developers to enhance their linting capabilities and stay updated with the latest best practices in CSS development.

  • sass-lint:

    Sass-lint has a smaller community and fewer plugins available compared to Stylelint. While it is effective for Sass projects, the limited ecosystem may restrict its functionality in more complex scenarios.

Error Reporting

  • stylelint:

    Stylelint offers detailed error reporting with contextual information, making it easier for developers to understand and fix issues in their CSS. Its reporting can be configured to suit different output formats, improving integration with build processes.

  • sass-lint:

    Sass-lint provides clear error messages and warnings specific to Sass code issues. However, its reporting features are relatively basic, which may not provide enough context for complex problems.

Integration

  • stylelint:

    Stylelint integrates seamlessly with various build tools and editors, including Webpack, Gulp, and IDEs like Visual Studio Code. This ease of integration makes it a preferred choice for modern development workflows.

  • sass-lint:

    Sass-lint can be integrated into build processes using tools like Gulp or Grunt, but its integration options are not as extensive as those of Stylelint. This may limit its use in larger projects with complex build setups.

How to Choose: stylelint vs sass-lint
  • stylelint:

    Choose 'stylelint' if you require a more versatile and powerful linter that supports standard CSS, SCSS, and other preprocessors. It offers extensive customization options, plugins, and a wider community support, making it suitable for diverse projects beyond just Sass.

  • sass-lint:

    Choose 'sass-lint' if you are specifically working with Sass (Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets) and need a tool that focuses on linting Sass files. It is tailored for Sass syntax and features, making it ideal for projects that heavily utilize Sass for styling.

README for stylelint

Stylelint

npm version Build Status npm downloads

A mighty CSS linter that helps you avoid errors and enforce conventions.

Features

It's mighty as it:

  • has over 100 built-in rules for modern CSS syntax and features
  • supports plugins so you can create your own custom rules
  • automatically fixes problems where possible
  • supports shareable configs that you can create or extend
  • can be customized to your exact needs
  • has 15k unit tests making it robust
  • is trusted by companies worldwide like Google and GitHub

And it can be extended to:

  • extract embedded styles from HTML, Markdown and CSS-in-JS template literals
  • parse CSS-like languages like SCSS, Sass, Less and SugarSS

How it'll help you

It'll help you avoid errors, for example:

  • invalid things, e.g. malformed grid areas
  • valid things that are problematic, e.g. duplicate selectors
  • unknown things, e.g. misspelled property names

And enforce conventions, for example:

  • disallow things, e.g. specific units
  • enforce naming patterns, e.g. for custom properties
  • set limits, e.g. the number of ID selectors
  • specify notations, e.g. for modern color functions

We recommend using a pretty printer like Prettier alongside Stylelint. Linters and pretty printers are complementary tools that work together to help you write consistent and error-free code.

Example output

Example

Guides

Contributors

Stylelint is maintained by volunteers. Without the code contributions from all these fantastic people, Stylelint would not exist. Become a contributor.

Alumni

We'd like to thank all past members for their invaluable contributions, including two of Stylelint's co-creators @davidtheclark and @MoOx.

Sponsors

Thank you to all our sponsors! Become a sponsor.

Backers

Thank you to all our backers! Become a backer.

Website hosting

Deploys by Netlify

License

The MIT License.