Limitations & Trade-offs

Maple's architecture offers unique benefits but also introduces constraints you should understand before adoption.

JavaScript is Required

Maple runs entirely in the browser and does not generate static CSS. If JavaScript is disabled, the page will render without styles. This is the fundamental trade-off for achieving a no-build pipeline and constant transfer size.

Runtime Cost Scaling

Maple's generation work scales with the number of unique utility classes that appear in the DOM. More unique utilities mean more runtime generation work.

Not all CSS fits in Utilities

While Maple supports advanced selectors and interpolation, certain patterns — such as keyframes, font-face declarations, global resets — are often better expressed in traditional CSS.

Relative OKLCH Colors

Maple color utilities use CSS relative color syntax with OKLCH so colors can be adjusted from their base values in the browser. As of May 2026, global support for relative color syntax is about 89%, with broader support for plain OKLab and OKLCH colors. Browsers that do not support relative color syntax ignore those generated color declarations.