CSS Grid vs Flexbox: When to Use Each

Two tools, not competitors

CSS Grid and Flexbox are often compared as if you need to choose one. In reality, they're complementary. The best layouts use both, each where it makes the most sense.

Flexbox: one-dimensional layout

Flexbox is designed for laying out items along a single axis, either a row or a column. It excels at distributing space and aligning items within a container.

Use Flexbox for

• Navigation bars - Spacing links evenly or pushing items to opposite ends
• Card content - Aligning title, description, and CTA vertically within a card
• Inline elements - Centering an icon next to text
• Simple responsive rows - Items that wrap when there isn't enough space
• Vertically centring - Finally, a clean way to centre things vertically

Flexbox strengths

• Simple, intuitive syntax
• Great at handling unknown numbers of items
• Excellent for component-level layout
• Strong browser support

CSS Grid: two-dimensional layout

CSS Grid handles rows and columns simultaneously. It's designed for page-level layout and any situation where you need precise control over both axes.

Use CSS Grid for

• Page layouts - Defining header, sidebar, main content, and footer regions
• Card grids - Consistent columns with items that align across rows
• Magazine-style layouts - Items that span multiple rows or columns
• Form layouts - Aligning labels and inputs across rows
• Dashboard layouts - Complex arrangements of widgets and panels

CSS Grid strengths

• True two-dimensional control
• Named grid areas for readable layout code
• Powerful auto-placement algorithm
• Subgrid for nested grid alignment

The practical approach

At CodeDrips, in our responsive web design work, we follow a simple rule of thumb:

• Page-level layout? Start with CSS Grid
• Component-level layout? Start with Flexbox
• Need both dimensions? CSS Grid
• Need flexible wrapping? Flexbox

Often, the page structure is CSS Grid while individual elements within it use Flexbox. They nest together perfectly.

A real-world example

Consider a blog listing page (like this one). The overall grid of article cards uses CSS Grid to create consistent columns. But within each card, Flexbox handles the vertical arrangement of title, excerpt, and "Read more" link.

This combination gives us precise control over the grid while letting individual cards manage their own internal layout flexibly.

Browser support

Both CSS Grid and Flexbox have excellent browser support. There's no practical reason to avoid either in modern web development. The IE11 era of worrying about Grid support is well behind us.