Why I Built csstools.io as a Backend Developer

Wahab Shah — Fri, 22 May 2026 17:49:03 +0000

I’ve always been more comfortable writing backend logic than styling interfaces.

Give me APIs, databases, or server-side code and I’m happy.

But CSS?

That usually meant:

Over time I realized something:

A lot of developers don’t actually struggle with ideas in CSS — they struggle with the repetitive trial-and-error process.

So instead of searching for snippets every time, I started building small tools to generate CSS visually.

That project eventually became CSSTools.io.

The goal wasn’t to replace learning CSS.

It was to make common UI effects faster and less frustrating.

Some tools currently include:

One thing I’ve noticed is that visual experimentation makes CSS much easier to understand.

Instead of reading documentation and guessing values, you can instantly see what changes.

I’m still improving the project regularly, but building it has already changed how I work with frontend styling.

Curious:
What CSS task do you waste the most time on?

DEV Community: Wahab Shah