Luis Augusto

Posted on Jun 25, 2020

Stop Using Fixed Headers and Start Using Sticky Ones

#css #webdev #design

Like them or not, headers that stay visible at the top of the page are a very popular UI and will likely not be going away anytime. Many sites make use of this kind of header, including Reddit, Facebook, Apple, and even DEV. What do each of these sites have in common? They are all using fixed headers.

I wanted to share that there is a better way to do this, and I am curious as to why no one is taking the approach of using a sticky header instead.

The issue with fixed headers

By using position: fixed on an element like the header, the element is removed from the stack and positioned relative to the browser window. That means it no longer takes up space and any elements positioned after it will adjust to fill up that area. In regards to a header, that means elements will be placed underneath it and you'll need to accommodate for it by using padding or relative positioning.

See Dev or Apple, which use a variable to store the header height and applies padding to the body or main tag:

Or Facebook, which uses relative positioning and a top offset to adjust for spacing:

Or Reddit, which uses a margin to solve it instead:

This is probably the worst way to build a header like because it's not responsive and extra unnecessary css. I suggest that headers like this should use sticky positioning instead.

The benefits of sticky positioning

By using position: sticky on a element like the header, it does a few great things. First of all, it doesn't remove the element from the stack, so it still keeps it's real estate in the container. That means you don't have to perform any of these hacks to get the right spacing for the main content and the header. Also, it still stays at the top of page or wherever you need it based on the scroll position. So instead of:

Setting header to position:fixed
Calculating the height with JS or manually adding it to a variable
Adjusting the position of the content with padding, margins, or relative positioning with that variable

All you have to do is:

header {
  position: sticky;
  top: 0;
}

And that's it, no extra variables or calculations needed.

Here is a very simple example in a Codepen:

Browser Support

Of course, the only downside is that it does not work on IE 11:

But really though, who is accessing the Apple website or Dev from IE11? Maybe I'm just crazy, but think there a few sites that can start making this transition over to sticky positioning.

Top comments (22)

mark l chaves • Jun 25 '20

Hi Luis,

Thanks for the article. Do you have a live code sample? I tried this a few times and I couldn't get it to work for me.

For example, in this pen, I disabled the CSS that compensates for my previous fixed header. Then, I changed my header to position sticky. No luck. All my anchors get hidden under the sticky header.

codepen.io/marklchaves/full/XWXgQJM

I checked to make sure my JS wasn't doing anything funky. I added the plain vanillla HTML anchor also just to make sure it wasn't my JavaScript.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

Luis Augusto • Jun 25 '20

Hey Mark, thanks for reading! I took a look at the code and the sticky position does seem to be working, but are you referring to the tabs hiding under the header when you click on the anchor links? That is because anchor links will always bring that particular element to the very top of the page view, so regardless of whether you have a fixed or sticky header, it will always appear underneath when using an anchor link.

To get around anchor links jumping elements to the top of the page, you can add an offset to your #tabstrip element, like so:

#tabstrip {
  margin-top: -100px;
  padding-top: 100px;
}

I hope that helps!

mark l chaves • Jun 25 '20

Got it. It's also my (mis)understanding of how sticky is supposed to work then. I appreciate that.

BTW, I use this snippet from SE to automatically compensate for fixed headers when using anchors.

:target::before {
    content: "";
    display: block;
    height: 6rem; 
    margin: -6rem 0 0; 
}

Thanks again!

Luis Augusto • Jun 25 '20

Awesome thanks for that, either way works!

Waylon Walker • Jul 15 '20

I've been using headroom for a few months and like the simplicity (on my behalf) that it provides to make the nave hop in and out kinda like a more native mobile app.

Save screen real estate with react-headroom

Waylon Walker ・ Feb 11 '20 ・ 2 min read

#webdev #showdev #gatsby #todayilearned

Here it is on waylonwalker.com

Luis Augusto • Jul 15 '20

Yea I also think this is a great approach, hiding the header when scrolling down and bringing it back when scrolling up. Easy to access and while still preserving screen real estate, and pretty easy to implement!

Shareque • Jun 26 '20

I recently face this issue for a sidebar header,
the position:sticky act as draggable content on iPad where as position: fixed stick to given position, works normal.

Dor Shinar • Jun 26 '20

To be honest, I'm not a fan of either. I find it much simpler to use overflow-y: scroll on the element actually being scrolled (in DEV's case the articles), instead of fiddling with header position.

Paweł Kowalski • Jun 25 '20

TBH on my computer DEV headers are not sticked/fixed/anything else.

Luis Augusto • Jun 25 '20

Sorry I didn't realize this when I wrote it, but looks like it's a setting in the UX options:

Paweł Kowalski • Jun 26 '20

Ouh, that must be it :) I dont like things taking up vertical space so i probably turned it off long time ago and forgot :))

Oscar González • Mar 17 '21

Does anyone notice the extra space(~1px) above the header when scrolling down. I can see it in Chrome only, other browsers works perfectly.
Any idea how to fix it?
dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...

Charlie • Jun 10 '22

A case for sticking with fixed header positioning involves headers that condense vertically when scrolling down the page, then expand again when user scrolls to top again (say, 100px threshold). Since sticky header is within document flow, when that animation occurs, it tweaks the scrollY value. The listener can get stuck performing the condense/expand animation in infinity loop. For example, user scrolls up and scrollY = 95px so the header expands by 10px. ScrollY is now 105px so header collapses and now scrollY = 95px again, and so on. It looks like the frenetic stutter step a squirrel makes when hesitating which way to run out of the road, not pleasant!

Paweł Kowalski • Aug 3 '20

I decided to write a post that adds on top of yours: dev.to/platformos/scrolling-to-the... :)

Luis Augusto • Aug 3 '20

Nice, thanks!

Quodline • Jun 27 '20

I prefer to hide the header when the user scrolls down and show it when the user scrolls up even slightly. I think it manages space better for small mobile phones.

Luis Augusto • Jun 27 '20

That's also a great option, and I'm done that for a few sites as well. You can also use sticky header in that situation and just animate its position with transform: translateY(-100%)