Comparing the best CSS grid generators

Editor’s note: This article was last updated on 7 July 2023 to remove outdated CSS grid generators and add popular ones like Visual Grid Generator and LayoutMaster.

Grids, grids, grids. There are so many things we can do with them. However, they require us to remember many properties.

If you are like me and you always have to resort to Google when using grids, the tricks we’ll cover in this guide will make your life as a developer much easier. We’ll cover the top eight CSS grid generators and compare them based on criteria such as ease of use, UI, and versatility.

Jump ahead:

• What are CSS grid generators?
• CSS Grid Generator
• CSS Layout Generator
• Grid LayoutIt
• Griddy
• Angry Tools CSS Grid
• Vue Grid Generator
• Visual Grid Generator
• LayoutMaster

What are CSS grid generators?

A grid generator is a website you can use to generate a grid in a few clicks. But why should you care about them? In my case, I use them quite often when I want to design the layout of my websites or a complex responsive structure inside an interface. Grids are great because they help you achieve a lot with just a few CSS lines, which saves a lot of time.

1. CSS Grid Generator

I put CSS Grid Generator first on my list because I use it the most. It is an open source project designed by Sarah Drasner. The code of the project is available here if you want to contribute.

To give you an example, I recently needed to generate a simple grid with two rows and three columns. I didn’t remember how to set a specific size for the row gap and the column gap. With CSS Grid Generator, I was able to easily create the structure I wanted and move on to more complex tasks:

.parent {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
  grid-template-rows: repeat(2, 1fr);
  grid-column-gap: 60px;
  grid-row-gap: 30px;
}

The final grid looked like this:

Pros

• The CSS Grid Generator interface is user-friendly and the colors are well-chosen, making it an excellent tool for beginners who want to become more familiar with CSS grids
• Because you can specify the number of columns, rows, and gaps across your grids, you almost always get the result you wanted
• Just hit one button to preview the code and copy it to your clipboard

Cons

• There is no template you can choose to save you time
• You wont be able to generate complicated layouts

2. CSS Layout Generator

I could have put CSS Layout Generator first on the list. If you are looking to generate complicated grids all the time, this is probably the one you should bookmark. Developed by Braid Design System, CSS Layout Generator offers a wide range of options that will solve most grid headaches.

In my daily work, I often use CSS Layout Generator templates because they conveniently allow you to choose between a structure with a sidebar and container or a header, main, and footer:

<section class="layout">
  <!-- The left sidebar where you can put your navigation items etc. -->
  <div class="sidebar">1</div>

  <!-- The main content of your website -->
  <div class="body">2</div>
</section>

<style>
.layout {
  width: 1366px;
  height: 768px;
  display: grid;
  /* This is the most important part where we define the size of our sidebar and body  */
  grid:
    "sidebar body" 1fr
    / auto 1fr;
  gap: 8px;
}

.sidebar {
  grid-area: sidebar;
}

.body {
  grid-area: body;
}
</style>

The Sidebar option looks like this:

Pros

• CSS Layout Generator allows you to choose between seven standard templates to get started faster
• There are many options to solve nearly all use cases
• You can switch between grids and flexbox, which is helpful to compare both options
• The interface is excellent and user-friendly

Cons

• Because it offers so many options, CSS Layout Generator can be confusing for a beginner

3. Grid LayoutIt

Grid LayoutIt was developed by Leniolabs and is another grid generator that comes with many options. The code is available publicly on GitHub if you are interested in contributing.

Recently, a customer asked me to design an interface to display important metrics about his product (somewhat similar to Geckoboard). The layout he wanted was very precise but, thanks to LayoutIt, I generated the code in a few seconds:

<div class="container">
  <div class="metric-1"></div>
  <div class="metric-2"></div>
  <div class="metrics-3"></div>
  <div class="metric-4"></div>
  <div class="metric-5"></div>
  <div class="metric-6"></div>
</div>

<style>
.container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  gap: 20px 20px;
  grid-auto-flow: row;
  grid-template-areas:
    "metric-1 metric-1 metric-2"
    "metrics-3 metric-4 metric-2"
    "metric-5 metric-5 metric-6";
}
.metric-1 {
  grid-area: metric-1;
}
.metric-2 {
  grid-area: metric-2;
}
.metrics-3 {
  grid-area: metrics-3;
}
.metric-4 {
  grid-area: metric-4;
}
.metric-5 {
  grid-area: metric-5;
}
.metric-6 {
  grid-area: metric-6;
}
</style>

The resulting layout looked like this:

Pros

• Grid LayoutIt is intuitive to use and provides many options
• You can set your columns and your rows using pixels (px), fractionals (fr), and percentages (%)
• Your layouts can be exported to CodePen, CodeSandbox, or StackBlitz in one click
• The interface is well-designed, with a proper contrast between the options and the grid preview
• Grid LayoutIt supports grid placement options

Cons

• This generator does not provide templates to save you time

4. Griddy

In my past experience, I spent a lot of time using Griddy. It is a little less easy to use than the CSS grid made by Sarah Drasner, but it offers more options. For example, it allows you to easily generate a four-column grid with three rows:

.container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 300px 1fr 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: 2fr 100px 1fr;
  grid-column-gap: 10px
  grid-row-gap: 20px
  justify-items: stretch
  align-items: stretch
}

The resulting layout looks like this:

Pros

• With Griddy, you can set your columns and your rows using pixels (px), fractionals (fr), percentages (%), and auto
• The provided options are enough to solve most use cases and test different alignments

Cons

• It may be a question of taste, but the sidebar with the options doesn’t have the best interface. You have to scroll for a while to get what you are looking for
• There are no templates to choose from
• There is no minmax() function

5. Angry Tools CSS Grid

Angry Tools CSS Grid is another great CSS grid generator. It can be handy, though probably less user-friendly than the other tools highlighted in this guide.

Angry Tools CSS Grid is also useful when generating galleries. By clicking on the squares, you can define their sizes and their directions, horizontally or vertically:

<div class="angry-grid">
  <div id="item-0">Item 0</div>
  <div id="item-1">Item 1</div>
  <div id="item-2">Item 2</div>
  <div id="item-3">Item 3</div>
  <div id="item-4">Item 4</div>
  <div id="item-5">Item 5</div>
  <div id="item-6">Item 6</div>
  <div id="item-7">Item 7</div>
  <div id="item-8">Item 8</div>
  <div id="item-9">Item 9</div>
</div>

<style>
.angry-grid {
  display: grid;
  /* Our grid will be displayed using 3 rows */
  grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  /* Our grid will be displayed using 4 columns */
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  /* You can define a gap between your columns and your rows if you need to */
  gap: 0px;
  height: 100%;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 1 and column 4 and end at row 2 and column 5 */
#item-0 {
  background-color: #8bf7ba;
  grid-row-start: 1;
  grid-column-start: 4;
  grid-row-end: 2;
  grid-column-end: 5;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 2 and column 3 and end at row 3 and column 5 */
#item-1 {
  background-color: #bf9aa7;
  grid-row-start: 2;
  grid-column-start: 3;
  grid-row-end: 3;
  grid-column-end: 5;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 2 and column 2 and end at row 3 and column 3 */
#item-2 {
  background-color: #c7656e;
  grid-row-start: 2;
  grid-column-start: 2;
  grid-row-end: 3;
  grid-column-end: 3;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 1 and column 1 and end at row 2 and column 3 */
#item-3 {
  background-color: #b659df;
  grid-row-start: 1;
  grid-column-start: 1;
  grid-row-end: 2;
  grid-column-end: 3;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 3 and column 1 and end at row 4 and column 3 */
#item-4 {
  background-color: #be6b5e;
  grid-row-start: 3;
  grid-column-start: 1;
  grid-row-end: 4;
  grid-column-end: 3;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 3 and column 4 and end at row 4 and column 6 */
#item-5 {
  background-color: #5bb9d7;
  grid-row-start: 3;
  grid-column-start: 4;
  grid-row-end: 4;
  grid-column-end: 6;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 1 and column 5 and end at row 3 and column 6 */
#item-6 {
  background-color: #56adba;
  grid-row-start: 1;
  grid-column-start: 5;
  grid-row-end: 3;
  grid-column-end: 6;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 1 and column 3 and end at row 2 and column 4 */
#item-7 {
  background-color: #9cab58;
  grid-row-start: 1;
  grid-column-start: 3;
  grid-row-end: 2;
  grid-column-end: 4;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 3 and column 3 and end at row 4 and column 4 */
#item-8 {
  background-color: #8558ad;
  grid-row-start: 3;
  grid-column-start: 3;
  grid-row-end: 4;
  grid-column-end: 4;
}

/* This grid item will start at row 2 and column 1 and end at row 3 and column 2 */
#item-9 {
  background-color: #96b576;
  grid-row-start: 2;
  grid-column-start: 1;
  grid-row-end: 3;
  grid-column-end: 2;
}
</style>

The resulting gallery looks like this:

Pros

• Angry Tools CSS Grid comes with templates you can choose from

Cons

• It doesn’t have a good looking design
• It can be difficult to use, so I wouldn’t recommend this tool for beginners
• You have to scroll to get the CSS outputs

6. Vue Grid Generator

Vue Grid Generator is yet another great grid generator. I like this one in particular because it has buttons at various parts of the website that can be used to customize the grid. You can find the source code on GitHub. It also has a great UI that isn’t intimidating to work with.

Here’s a sample UI created using Vue Grid Generator:

The code for this layout is as follows:

<style>
.container {
  display: grid;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  grid-template-areas: "a-6W259 a-6W259 a-6W259 a-6W259"
  "a-vQDAZ-1 a-nR8pO-1 right a-J8lmQ-0"
  "a-k2Dm7 a-k2Dm7 a-k2Dm7 a-k2Dm7"
  "a-vQDAZ-2 a-nR8pO-2 footer-1-1 a-J8lmQ-1";
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr 1fr 80px;
}
.container > div {
  border: 1px dashed #888;
}

.a-6W259 {
  grid-area: a-6W259;
}
.a-vQDAZ-1 {
  grid-area: a-vQDAZ-1;
}
.a-nR8pO-1 {
  grid-area: a-nR8pO-1;
}
.right {
  grid-area: right;
}
.a-J8lmQ-0 {
  grid-area: a-J8lmQ-0;
}
.a-k2Dm7 {
  grid-area: a-k2Dm7;
}
.a-vQDAZ-2 {
  grid-area: a-vQDAZ-2;
}
.a-nR8pO-2 {
  grid-area: a-nR8pO-2;
}
.footer-1-1 {
  grid-area: footer-1-1;
}
.a-J8lmQ-1 {
  grid-area: a-J8lmQ-1;
}
</style>
<div class="container">
  <div class="a-6W259">a-6W259</div>
  <div class="a-vQDAZ-1">a-vQDAZ-1</div>
  <div class="a-nR8pO-1">a-nR8pO-1</div>
  <div class="right">right</div>
  <div class="a-J8lmQ-0">a-J8lmQ-0</div>
  <div class="a-k2Dm7">a-k2Dm7</div>
  <div class="a-vQDAZ-2">a-vQDAZ-2</div>
  <div class="a-nR8pO-2">a-nR8pO-2</div>
  <div class="footer-1-1">footer-1-1</div>
  <div class="a-J8lmQ-1">a-J8lmQ-1</div>
</div>

Pros

• Highly customizable thanks to to helpful buttons
• User-friendly UI

Cons

• No predefined templates, although it does come with a sample code/UI

7. Visual Grid Generator

Visual Grid Generator is the next grid generator on our list. It was created by Andreas, and the source code is available on GitHub. This generator has a clean and friendly UI. It’s also easy to understand and, therefore, suitable for beginners:

Here’s the resulting CSS for this layout:

.parentElement {
display: grid;
grid-template-rows: 1fr 1fr;
grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
grid-row-gap: 10px;
grid-column-gap: 30px;
}

Pros

• Simple and user-friendly UI

Cons

• There are no predefined templates
• It doesn’t generate HTML codes along with CSS output

8. LayoutMaster

LayoutMaster is the last CSS grid generator on our list, as it is the least user-friendly tool highlighted in this guide. The source code can be found on GitHub.

The initial landing page for LayoutMaster is blank, which might throw off visitors. However, by right-clicking on the squares using a mouse, you can easily create new grids and manipulate their sizes with a mouse drag feature, either horizontally or vertically.

Here’s a sample UI created with LayoutMaster:

And here’s the resulting CSS:

.container {
  grid-template-areas: "Header Right ."
                 "Header Right ."
                 "About About ."
                 "About About ."
                 "About About ."
                 "Footer Footer ."
                 "Footer Footer .";
  grid-template-rows: 100px 100px 100px 100px 100px 100px 100px;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  grid-gap: 10px;
}

.head {
  grid-area: Header;
}
.Right {
  grid-area: Right;
}
.about {
  grid-area: About;
}
.foot {
  grid-area: Footer;
}

Pros

• It allows a custom mouse drag feature so you can resize your grids

Cons

• The UI isn’t friendly, as beginners won’t know what to do when they initially find the page
• No predefined templates
• Doesn’t generate HTML codes along with CSS output

Comparing the CSS grid generators

Grid Tools	Ease of use	UI	Versatility	Pre-defined template
CSS Grid Generator	Great	Great	Average	No
CSS Layout Generator	Average	Great	Great	Yes
Grid LayoutIt	Great	Great	Great	No
Griddy	Great	Average	Average	No
Angry Tools CSS Grid	Average	Poor	Average	Yes
Vue Grid Generator	Great	Average	Great	No
Visual Grid Generator	Great	Great	Average	No
LayoutMaster	Average	Poor	Poor	No

CSS grid cheat sheet

CSS grid generators are great to use when you aren’t familiar with CSS properties. But, as you become a more advanced developer, you may find that a quick cheat sheet is probably handier.

If it can help you, here is the one I have made for myself:

CSS properties	Description
gap	Sets the gap size between the rows and columns. It is a shorthand for the following properties: row-gap and column-gap
row-gap	Specifies the gap between the grid rows
column-gap	Specifies the gap between the columns
grid	A shorthand property for: grid-template-rows, grid-template-columns, grid-template-areas, grid-auto-rows, grid-auto-columns, grid-auto-flow
grid-area	Specifies a grid item’s size and location in a grid layout and is a shorthand property for the following properties: grid-row-start, grid-column-start, grid-row-end, grid-column-end
grid-auto-columns	Sets the size for the columns in a grid container
grid-auto-flow	Controls how auto-placed items get inserted in the grid
grid-auto-rows	Sets the size for the rows in a grid container
grid-column	Specifies a grid item’s size and location in a grid layout and is a shorthand property for the following properties: grid-column-start, grid-column-end
grid-column-end	Defines how many columns an item will span or on which column-line the item will end
grid-column-gap	Defines the size of the gap between the columns in a grid layout
grid-column-start	Defines on which column-line the item will start
grid-gap	Defines the size of the gap between the rows and columns in a grid layout and is a shorthand property for the following properties: grid-row-gap, grid-column-gap
grid-row	Specifies a grid item’s size and location in a grid layout and is a shorthand property for the following properties: grid-row-start, grid-row-end
grid-row-end	Defines how many rows an item will span or on which row-line the item will end
grid-row-gap	Defines the size of the gap between the rows in a grid layout
grid-row-start	Defines on which row-line the item will start
grid-template	A shorthand property for the following properties: grid-template-rows, grid-template-columns, grid-template-areas
grid-template-areas	Specifies areas within the grid layout
grid-template-columns	Specifies the number (and the widths) of columns in a grid layout
grid-template-rows	Specifies the number (and the heights) of the rows in a grid layout

I hope this quick comparison of the best CSS grid generators helps you bookmark your favorite one.

A critical piece of advice I have for dealing with CSS grids is to take your time. These generators are a great option because they can help you get the layouts you need step by step and avoid relying on more complicated solutions.

I am also happy to read your comments and Twitter messages. 😉 And in case you are curious about my work or my other articles, you can find that here.

Thank you for reading!