--- title: There Is No “Wrong” in CSS | daily.dev description: There is no objectively "wrong" CSS, and four reasons support this claim. First, if CSS works without practical disadvantages, there's no reason to change it,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/there-is-no-wrong-in-css-cgco1mvtk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: There Is No “Wrong” in CSS | daily.dev og:description: There is no objectively "wrong" CSS, and four reasons support this claim. First, if CSS works without practical disadvantages, there's no reason to change it,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/there-is-no-wrong-in-css-cgco1mvtk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cGCO1MVtk.png og:image:alt: There Is No “Wrong” in CSS og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # There Is No “Wrong” in CSS **[SitePoint](https://daily.dev/sources/sitepoint)** · 5 min read · 44 upvotes · 7 comments ## Summary There is no objectively "wrong" CSS, and four reasons support this claim. First, if CSS works without practical disadvantages, there's no reason to change it, especially given the web platform's strong backwards-compatibility guarantees. Second, any consequences of suboptimal CSS fall on the developer or organization, making it their call to address. Third, CSS is easy to refactor when a better approach is needed, so no mistake is truly grave. Fourth, when CSS creates real barriers for users, that's arguably a platform-level responsibility rather than a developer failure. CSS advice should always be understood as context-dependent guidance, not universal law — and distinguishing advice from dogma is key to evaluating criticism of your code. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@remling** · 8 upvotes > Oh, there can be a lot wrong with css **@yaireo** · 5 upvotes > Is this article a joke? **@phil\_ripley** · 5 upvotes > Clearly, this author has never looked at the CSS that comes with WordPress plugins. 😂 **@oleasteo** · 3 upvotes > The author's mistakes are most prominent in 1, 3, and 4. > > > 1: Oftentimes, it's challenging to evaluate if "it works". Issues w.r.t. accessibility, responsiveness, and platform independence (e.g., font-related) are difficult to notice. Staying with best practices mitigates much of the effort to evaluate if "it works". For heaven's sake, we don't even have a standard screen reader to test against; it's all a "design for the popular choice" mess. > > 3: It's not easy to change if it's central to your page. Changing `display:block` to `display:flex` for wrappers, for example, if some components also... **@rankocolevic** · 0 upvotes > Definitely wrong way of thinking, sooner or later you will get some cases when that "is okay" will cause some visibility trouble on a device/browser, and then you will have to deal with a much bigger picture at that point, instead of writing it properly now and using properties properly with some ground rules placed. > > Even if CSS doesn't work directly with business logic, it presents a part that works with that logic, and it has to look and work well ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [CSS: Unavoidable Bad Parts](https://daily.dev/posts/css-unavoidable-bad-parts-ia9uwkcoo) · matklad · 15 upvotes · 0 comments - [CSS sucks because we don't bother learning it.](https://daily.dev/posts/css-sucks-because-we-don-t-bother-learning-it--llozhb60n) · Hacker News · 239 upvotes · 43 comments - [Should CSS be Constraints?](https://daily.dev/posts/should-css-be-constraints--cwozzuyln) · Lobsters · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Wanna see a CSS magic trick?](https://daily.dev/posts/wanna-see-a-css-magic-trick--wta2tfzuo) · Stack Overflow Blog · 76 upvotes · 4 comments --- Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#css](https://daily.dev/tags/css), [#accessibility](https://daily.dev/tags/accessibility) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/there-is-no-wrong-in-css-cgco1mvtk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"There Is No “Wrong” in CSS","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/there-is-no-wrong-in-css-cgco1mvtk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/there-is-no-wrong-in-css-cgco1mvtk"},"datePublished":"2026-03-16T06:11:15.991Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T06:11:42.611Z","description":"There is no objectively \"wrong\" CSS, and four reasons support this claim. First, if CSS works without practical disadvantages, there's no reason to change it,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c2b45aace2e6ee65d71f13bbf30a6704?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/c2b45aace2e6ee65d71f13bbf30a6704?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"SitePoint","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"SitePoint","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/sitepoint","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/sitepoint"},"commentCount":7,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/there-is-no-wrong-in-css-cgco1mvtk","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":44},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":7}],"keywords":"webdev,css,accessibility","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SitePoint","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/sitepoint"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"There Is No “Wrong” in CSS"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/there-is-no-wrong-in-css-cgco1mvtk","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Oh, there can be a lot wrong with css","datePublished":"2026-03-17T09:30:23.179Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cGCO1MVtk#c-0aUyJWhN3","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Rene","url":"https://daily.dev/remling","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--OKDleE2Y--/f_auto/v1757499552/avatars/avatar_SQyjUEXYiZe546FNHwf7n?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Is this article a joke?","datePublished":"2026-03-17T10:13:09.356Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cGCO1MVtk#c-gOFQPBo7I","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Yair Even Or","url":"https://daily.dev/yaireo","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/845031?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Clearly, this author has never looked at the CSS that comes with WordPress plugins. 😂","datePublished":"2026-03-17T22:59:46.941Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cGCO1MVtk#c-NQRdjhtKs","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Phil Ripley","url":"https://daily.dev/phil_ripley","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocK9DaG5JWBef_AwZnD9JGYcEeHcxT-FLEidwdcH8aBJjmZULLKD=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":5}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The author’s mistakes are most prominent in 1, 3, and 4.\n1: Oftentimes, it’s challenging to evaluate if “it works”. Issues w.r.t. accessibility, responsiveness, and platform independence (e.g., font-related) are difficult to notice. Staying with best practices mitigates much of the effort to evaluate if “it works”. For heaven’s sake, we don’t even have a standard screen reader to test against; it’s all a “design for the popular choice” mess.\n3: It’s not easy to change if it’s central to your page. Changing display:block to display:flex for wrappers, for example, if some components also use @media breakpoints to change how they wrap… That’s a hell of a refactoring and will only grow if you postpone. So, yes, there is a “right” solution. Another example: hard-coded color values everywhere… A mess that grows beyond fixability.\n4: Web Platform Responsibility and Backwards Compatibility don’t work well together. If you used table layout in the past, you don’t have proper semantic indicators for the Web Platform to have the possibility to fix this. This is why modern HTML + CSS focus on semantics instead of just “it works”. That’s why the “old way” is wrong.","datePublished":"2026-03-20T11:40:46.782Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cGCO1MVtk#c-ChFn23W2M","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ole Asteo","url":"https://daily.dev/oleasteo","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JdWo69z5--/f_auto/v1717727496/avatars/avatar_F0Xy9hFix9xesVAvIxSfO"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Definitely wrong way of thinking, sooner or later you will get some cases when that “is okay” will cause some visibility trouble on a device/browser, and then you will have to deal with a much bigger picture at that point, instead of writing it properly now and using properties properly with some ground rules placed.\nEven if CSS doesn’t work directly with business logic, it presents a part that works with that logic, and it has to look and work well","datePublished":"2026-03-26T09:44:21.302Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/cGCO1MVtk#c-ZgXDNxBFu","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ranko Colevic","url":"https://daily.dev/rankocolevic","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocIA7NZUBwAEQdit1Bhi1YrnEGprDFeiUc65An8stemGTTIpoG8=s96-c"}}]} ```