📐 CSS Grid vs Flexbox: When I Use Which

People act like CSS Grid and Flexbox are rivals. They're not. I use both in almost every page on Creators.Tools. The trick is knowing which tool fits the problem.

The Simple Rule

Flexbox for components, Grid for layouts. Flexbox lays things out in one direction (row or column). Grid handles two dimensions (rows and columns). If you need both axes, use Grid. If you just need to center something or stack things in a row, use Flexbox.

Flexbox: Everyday Components

Navigation

This is Flexbox's wheelhouse. Items in a row, evenly spaced, responsive with a single property change:

.nav {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between;
  align-items: center;
  gap: 1rem;
}
/* On mobile, just flip the direction */
@media (max-width: 768px) {
  .nav { flex-direction: column; }
}

Centering (The Reason Many People Learn Flexbox)

.container {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
}
/* Perfect centering. No hacks. */

Cards with Different Content Lengths

Make cards equal height even when their content varies:

.card {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
}
.card-body { flex: 1; }  /* Pushes footer to the bottom */
.card-footer { margin-top: auto; }

CSS Grid: The Heavy Lifter

Page Layout

Grid shines for the big picture — header, sidebar, main content, footer:

.layout {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 200px 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: auto 1fr auto;
  grid-template-areas:
    "header header"
    "sidebar main"
    "footer footer";
}
/* Mobile: single column */
@media (max-width: 768px) {
  .layout {
    grid-template-columns: 1fr;
    grid-template-areas:
      "header"
      "main"
      "sidebar"
      "footer";
  }
}

Auto-Fitting Gallery

This is my favorite Grid feature. No media queries needed:

.gallery {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(auto-fit, minmax(250px, 1fr));
  gap: 1rem;
}
/* Automatically wraps items into new rows as the container shrinks */

This single declaration replaced about 50 lines of media queries in Creators.Tools's tool grid. Use the CSS Generator to experiment with different minmax values.

What I Actually Use Day-to-Day

On Creators.Tools, the page shell is Grid. Inside each section, cards and navigation use Flexbox. It's not fancy — it's just picking the right layout mode for each level. Grid on the outside, Flexbox on the inside. That's 95% of my layout work.