compare
Lightning CSS vs PostCSS
The same facts for both, read from GitHub every night, and the relation a person reviewed.
| Fact | Lightning CSS | PostCSS |
|---|---|---|
| Language | Rust | TypeScript |
| Licence | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Stars | 7.7k | 29k |
| Latest | v1.33.0 | 8.5.29 |
| Last push | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-05 |
| Release cadence | about 123 days between releases | about 18 days between releases |
| Active contributors | 6 commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days | 18 commit authors on the default branch in the last 90 days |
| Flags | none | none |
How they relate
Lightning CSS replaces PostCSS. Alternatives to PostCSS →
PartialPrefixing, syntax lowering, nesting and minification built in, without PostCSS plugins.
Published benchmarks, each linked to its source. The numbers depend on the hardware and the workload they were measured on.
Minifying CSS files against cssnano (PostCSS)
bootstrap-4.css: lightningcss 4.16ms, cssnano 544.809ms. tailwind.css: 43.368ms vs 2.198s (esbuild 17.199ms, 107.668ms).
Lightning CSS
- v1.33.02026-07-20Add support for ::highlight
- v1.32.02026-03-09Enable custom resolvers to mark imports as external. Resolvers may now return {external: string} to mark an import as e…
- v1.31.02026-01-20Implement scroll-state container queries
- v1.30.22025-09-29Fix installing on android
- v1.30.12025-05-14Fixed crash on process exit when lightningcss was loaded inside a Node.js worker thread on Linux
Lightning CSS
unsigned The latest release, v1.33.0, carries no signature GitHub could verify.
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PostCSS
✓ signed The latest release, 8.5.29, carries a signature GitHub verified.
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