What is caniuse-lite?
The caniuse-lite npm package is a lighter version of the full caniuse database, which provides up-to-date browser support tables for front-end web technologies. It is used for checking the compatibility of web features in different browsers and browser versions.
What are caniuse-lite's main functionalities?
Browser support data retrieval
Retrieve browser support data for a specific feature, such as CSS flexbox.
const caniuse = require('caniuse-lite');
const featureData = caniuse.feature(caniuse.features.flexbox);
console.log(featureData);
Browser usage statistics
Get usage statistics for different versions of a specific browser, like Chrome.
const caniuse = require('caniuse-lite');
const browserStats = caniuse.getBrowserUsageByVersion('chrome');
console.log(browserStats);
Data for browser versions
Retrieve a list of versions for a given browser, such as Firefox.
const caniuse = require('caniuse-lite');
const versions = caniuse.getVersions('firefox');
console.log(versions);
Region-based browser usage statistics
Get browser usage statistics for a specific region, like the United States.
const caniuse = require('caniuse-lite');
const regionUsage = caniuse.getRegion('US');
console.log(regionUsage);
Other packages similar to caniuse-lite
browserslist
The browserslist package allows you to declare the browsers you want to support using queries in a .browserslistrc file or package.json. It is used by tools like Autoprefixer, eslint-plugin-compat, and others to determine which browser versions to support when transpiling or linting code. It differs from caniuse-lite by focusing on defining a list of browsers for tooling rather than providing raw compatibility data.
compat-table
The compat-table package provides data on JavaScript language features and their support across different engines and runtime environments. It is similar to caniuse-lite in that it provides compatibility data, but it focuses specifically on ECMAScript features rather than broader web technologies.
mdn-browser-compat-data
The mdn-browser-compat-data package is a collection of JSON files containing compatibility data for web technologies as provided by the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN). It is similar to caniuse-lite in providing compatibility data but is sourced from MDN documentation and covers a wider range of web technologies, including APIs, CSS, HTML, HTTP, SVG, and more.