CSS Zen Garden
Shares rank 6 of 18 reference websites by recommenders
Recommended for showing how CSS separates style from content and for learning CSS through many designs. Critics say many designs are inaccessible.
Recommended for showing how CSS separates style from content and for learning CSS through many designs. Critics say many designs are inaccessible.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good for learning CSS
“Dave Shea's CSS Zen Garden is how I learned CSS in the first place.”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “The CSS Zen Garden dream, finally shipped” “This is a great resource for anyone currently learning CSS.”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “The CSS Zen Garden dream, finally shipped” Many varied designs to browse
“Multiple completely transformative CSS themes for user selection, not just light/dark/colourisation of the same layout”
Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “The CSS Zen Garden dream, finally shipped” “there are many good designs on showcase”
Comment from 11 Jan 2026 in “AI is a business model stress test”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Many designs are inaccessible
“I'd forgotten how inaccessible some of the Zen Garden designs are with their addition of extra content in the presentation layer alone.”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “The CSS Zen Garden dream, finally shipped” “even the https://csszengarden.com/ has the "View All Designs" button that is inaccessible.”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “The CSS Zen Garden dream, finally shipped” Designs break and are hard to maintain
“Even small changes to the original page layout would completely break most of the provided styles.”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Modern CSS Code Snippets: Stop writing CSS like it's 2015” “it's an unmaintainable mess of absolutely positioned elements”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Modern CSS Code Snippets: Stop writing CSS like it's 2015” Restricts which CSS features to use
“Even this project proves it. You have to know which CSS features never to use.”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “The CSS Zen Garden dream, finally shipped” “Zen Garden prohibiting css 3+ in most cases”
Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “The CSS Zen Garden dream, finally shipped”
Other reference websites people recommend
The four most recommended other reference websites, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info | 49 | 0 | 100% | 6 | 19 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Animated Knots by Grog | 14 | 1 | 93% | 2 | — | — |
| Ian's Shoelace Site | 10 | 1 | 91% | 4 | — | Approved |
| OEIS | 9 | 1 | 90% | 6 | — | — |
| CSS Zen GardenThis page | 8 | 6 | 57% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
15 of the 18 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Multiple completely transformative CSS themes for user selection, not just light/dark/colourisation of the same layout”
“Even this project proves it. You have to know which CSS features never to use.”
“I'd forgotten how inaccessible some of the Zen Garden designs are with their addition of extra content in the presentation layer alone.”
“I too was strongly inspired by the ideas that CSS Zen Garden was promoting”
“even the https://csszengarden.com/ has the "View All Designs" button that is inaccessible.”
“Zen Garden prohibiting css 3+ in most cases”
“It started the trend that led to utter degradation of any usability in modern web interfaces.”
“The CSS Zen Garden worked because everyone was using a single markup file.”
“The UX for seeing the different designs is terrible.”
“This was the site shown to me to prove the separation of style and content.”
“This is a great resource for anyone currently learning CSS.”
“Dave Shea's CSS Zen Garden is how I learned CSS in the first place.”
“Even small changes to the original page layout would completely break most of the provided styles.”
“it's an unmaintainable mess of absolutely positioned elements”
“there are many good designs on showcase”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.