CSS Grid Vs. Flexbox: A Tutorial to Understand the Key Differences

Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to design the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language. It is commonly used with HTML to change the style of user interfaces, and web pages. In this tutorial, you will look into and understand the differences between CSS Grid and Flexbox Layout. The topics that will be covered are as follows:

• CSS Grid Layout
• CSS Flexbox
• One Vs. Two Dimension
• Content-First Vs. Layout-First
• Usage of Grid and Flexbox

CSS Grid Layout

The CSS Grid Layout is a two-dimensional grid-based layout system with rows and columns. It is useful in creating more complex and organized layouts.

To define a grid container, you will have to pass a display: grid property to your element. 

CSS Flexbox

The CSS Flexbox is a one-dimensional layout. It is useful in allocating and aligning the space among items in a grid container. It works with various kinds of display devices and screen sizes. Flex layout makes it easier to design and build responsive web pages without using many float and position properties in the CSS code.

To start using Flexbox, you have to create a flex container using the display: flex property. Every element inside the particular flex container will act as a flex item.

One Vs. Two Dimension

Flexbox is made for one-dimensional layouts, and the Grid is made for two-dimensional layouts. It means Flexbox can work on either rows or columns at a time, but Grids can work on both.

Content-First Vs. Layout-First

Another major difference between the two is that Flexbox takes a basis in the content while Grid takes a basis in the layout.

Let’s look at an example to understand it better.

Here the content inside the box does not stretch automatically according to the content.

In the flex item, the box stretches as far as the content goes. 

Usage of Grid and Flexbox

You should consider using grid layout when: 

• You have a complex design to work with and want maintainable web pages
• You want to add gaps over the block elements

You should consider using flexbox when:

• You have a small design to work with a few rows and columns
• You need to align the element
• You don’t know how your content will look on the page, and you want everything to fit in.

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Conclusion

In this CSS Grid vs Flexbox tutorial, you have looked into the differences between CSS Grid and Flexbox layout, how they function in modern browsers. With the right amount of practice, you can master both the layouts and create impressive web pages.

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