Bootstrap vs Sass

The grid layout with the predefined CSS elements and JavaScript components make it easier to have consistency across different browser versions and even different devices.

Bootstrap is developed to be instantly compatible with all sizes of screens, so you don't have to worry about which device the user is accessing your site from. Yet if you prefer, you can disable responsiveness of Bootstrap.

Documentation is thorough, well organized and full of live examples and templates ready for use. Every component and every part of the framework is explained and covered in depth.

If you don't want to download the full Bootstrap framework. Custom builds of Bootstrap can be created, including only the desired CSS, CSS components, and JavaScript components. This can be done directly from the Bootstrap website by simply choosing what components to download.

Bootstrap is designed to get a site up and running quickly. Each of it's components is pre-configured to help with getting a site up and running quickly.

Bootstrap is very popular and has a large community. As a result of this it is much easier to find help with anything you might need. This also gives you a treasure trove of prebuilt components to use and add to your site.

Allows easily adding responsiveness to <iframe>, <embed>, and <object> elements.

Bootstrap makes it easy to learn how to make professional looking websites. It can even make code junkies semi-enjoy design.

Bootstrap can be customized in a variety of ways. Either by overriding the default CSS styles with new CSS styles or by editing the .scss Bootstrap files.

To help you avoid the "Bootstrap look", there are many resources that provide a great selection of themes and templates for Bootstrap.

Ranked on GitHub as the most starred CSS repository.

Builders available, such as Pingendo and Layoutit.

You are able to declare custom functions with Sass (for example, converting units) which can be easily invoked, even when using shorthand properties. This results in cleaner, more reusable code.

Sass allows you to nest selectors which results in code that is both faster to write and cleaner to read.

For example, this:

.parent 
  color: blue
  .child
    color: yellow

Will compile to this:

.parent {
  color: blue;
}
.parent .child {
  color: yellow;
}

Another big advantage for Sass is the very active community pushing the development forward at a rapid pace. Sass is constantly coming out with bug fixes, and are often the first to come out with improvements.

This is an important factor to keep in mind when picking a preprocessor to invest your time into.

It comes with two possible syntaxes:

• Sass - No parens or semicolons allowed and the nesting is dictated with whitespace.
• SCSS - SCSS syntax is a superset of CSS – which means SCSS can be written as CSS, but has been expanded to include the features of Sass as well.

SCSS is easier to pick up for beginners and Sass has a cleaner syntax. Having both syntaxes means you can pick the one that best suits your coding style.

The mandatory syntax rules for both SCSS and Sass results in a more consistent code. For a more detailed analysis between Sass and SCSS go here. To see a nice comparison of the Sass syntax against CSS and SCSS go here.

Sass simplifies minifying CSS files by offering a one-line command that will output a minified version.

It's very comfortable and easy to write/learn Sass, even for beginners.

Sass can be used with a framework called Compass, which provides additional functions and mixins which can reduce the amount of code you have to write.
For example, Compass will take care of vendor prefixes.

This:

div {
    background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#F00, #000);
    background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#F00, #000);
    background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#F00, #000);
    background-image: linear-gradient(#F00, #000);
   }

Can be written as:

.gradient {
    @include background-image(linear-gradient(#F00, #000));
}

For a full list of features, check out the Compass documentation.

Rather than being limited to editing the outputted CSS file in devtools, with source maps you are able to manipulate the original .scss file.

There is also a C/C++ port of the Sass CSS precompiler called Libsass that decouples Sass from Ruby. It is very fast, portable and easy to build and integrate with a variety of platforms and languages.

The latest implementation of Sass is written in Dart, and compiles to pure JS with no native code or external dependencies, means you no longer need Ruby or libSass.

Since it's written in Ruby, it's easier and faster to use with Ruby apps.