A CSS dropdown menu is an effective solution for enhancing the UI and UX of an app or website. A drop-down menu is a sub-menu of a website or app’s main menu. It is used to showcase content buttons (links) for each parent menu item.
Dropdown menus help users easily navigate an app or website by narrowing down their choices. CSS dropdown menus are ideal for building a website or app’s navigation bars, search bars, or tab bars.
Dropdown Menu Examples
Here is a collection of stylish CSS dropdown menu examples web designers and app developers can use in their projects.
Dropdown Menu Examples For Apps
Molten menu
Author: Zealand
Made with: CSS, HTML
Here is a beautifully animated menu to try out. Each drop-down menu flows like liquid fire beneath its main menu item.
Recursive Hover Nav ( Only CSS )
Author: sean_codes
Made with: CSS, HTML
This dropdown menu displays when the main menu is hovered over.
Dropdown Menus
Author: Kevin
Made with: CSS, HTML
With this option, main menu items display in distinctive colors. Dropdown menus descend in a smooth animation.
Simple CSS Dropdown Menu with Hover and :focus-within and Focus states and ARIA
Author: Una Kravets
Made with: CSS, HTML
This is a simple dropdown menu with a minimal design.
CSS Dropdown Menu
Author: Rlski
Made with: CSS, HTML
With this option, the user clicks the dropdown button to display the sub-menu.
Dropdown Menu Examples For Websites and Apps
Pure CSS Dropdown Menu
Author: Cristina Silva
Made with: CSS, HTML
This dropdown menu does not include JavaScript. Of the four menu items, there is only one div class dropdown button included. This button class creates a sub-menu that contains three content fields.
Peace. CSS3 Animated Dropdown Menu
Author: Maxim Aginsky
Made with: CSS, HTML
This option has a beautiful background color and dropdown content when the user hovers over the main menu button.
CSS Dropdown Menu
Author: Amr SubZero
Made with: CSS, HTML
Here is a CSS dropdown menu with a refreshing background color. Each sub-menu displays the dropdown content of its main menu item.
Full width css dropdown menu
Author: Gol Hamer
Made with: CSS, HTML
It’s easy to create a dropdown menu using this simple option.
Swanky Pure CSS Drop Down Menu V2.0
Author: Jamie Coulter
Made with: CSS, HTML
Here’s a great option for a non-JavaScript IU. It features a beautiful background color and a smooth dropdown animation effect.
Simple CSS Dropdown Menu
Author: Jon Bellah
Made with: CSS, HTML
This CSS dropdown menu template has a dropdown button that displays dropdown content when hovered over.
Simple Pure Css dropdown menu with following subnav
Author: Robert Borghesi
Made with: CSS, HTML
A dropdown menu CSS concept that includes a line that follows the user’s cursor. This template includes a grey background color set with a green menu bar. The dropdown button could consist of links to tutorials or other content related to the app or website.
Simple Pure CSS Dropdown Menu
Author: Connor Brassington
Made with: CSS, HTML
A simple CSS dropdown menu. With a bit of adjustment to the button class code, another menu button can be adjusted to display dropdown content.
Vertical Dropdown Menu
Author: Kerem Beyazit
Made with: CSS, HTML
This dropdown menu CSS concept has icons that display their dropdown content to the right of the screen. Each main menu icon appears as a blue symbol that generates dropdown content when hovered over. This is a vertical dropdown concept that can be used for websites and apps.
CSS dropdown menu
Author: Kitty giraudel
Made with: CSS, HTML
A minimal dropdown menu, designed with the checkbox hack. The div class dropdown code may need adjustments before use in your projects.
Pure CSS Dropdown Menu (No JavaScript)
Author: Garet McKinley
Made with: CSS, HTML
In this option, the div class dropdown code may need to be adjusted before use.
CSS Drop Down Menu Paper Folding Effect
Author: Razvan Tudosa
Made with: CSS, HTML
This is a CSS dropdown menu designed with a paper folding animation effect.
Simple Menu
Author: Hugh Balboa
Made with: HTML, CSS
A nice menu bar with two item dropdowns that descend to reveal additional content-menus.
Pure CSS dropdown [work for mobile touch screen]
Author: Jonath Lee
Made with: HTML, CSS
This CSS dropdown menu works well for touch screen devices. It has been tested on:
- Chrome Canary
- Chrome PC
- IE10 PC
- Android emulator
- Firefox PC
- And Android 5 smartphone
Dropdown Menu Examples For Websites
Full-width sub-menu
Author: Alexei Popkov
Made with: CSS, HTML
A full-width dropdown menu. The sub-menus stay beneath their parent items.
CSS3 only dropdown menu with transitions
Author: Carolina Hansson
Made with: HTML, CSS
With this option, the menu text’s color becomes blue and is underlined when hovered over. The ‘About’ menu item drops down to reveal an inline-block display of three extra items.
MainMenu #CodePenChallenge
Author: Mohamed Ayman
Made with: HTML, CSS
This is a beautiful and colorful horizontal dropdown menu.
Tertiary animated CSS dropdown menu
Author: Dan Mathisen
Made with: HTML, CSS
A dropdown menu style that is great for designing a website.
Responsive navigation menu Pure CSS
Author: Jenning
Made with: HTML, CSS
This simple design has a mild background color.
#CodePenChallenge – Menu – Gradient Menu
Author: Halida Astatin
Made with: HTML, CSS
A responsive dropdown menu which displays beautiful colors.
CSS dropdown menu – upward
Author: Nicolas Galler
Made with: HTML, CSS
This dropdown style is excellent for designing pro browsers like Chrome and Firefox. The dropdown menu is set at the lower edge of the screen with an inline-block display.
Pure CSS DropDown Menu
Author: Dr. Web
Made with: HTML, CSS
This example is ideal for designing a website.
Dropdown menu with css3 a
Author: Mario Loncarek
Made with: HTML, CSS
The black menu at the margin-top has a familiar design to make it easy for users. Menu items change color when hovered over.
Pure CSS DropDown Menu
Author: Andor Nagy
Made with: HTML, CSS
This is a simple example of a dropdown menu.
Menu #CodePenChallenge
Author: Ahmad Nasr
Made with: HTML, CSS
With a beautiful background color, this horizontal CSS dropdown menu features a nice animation effect.
Dark HTML CSS Dropdown Menu
Author: Marco Besagni
Made with: HTML, CSS
This design style is simple and has an ideal font size for each menu option.
A simple Dropdown Menu
Author: Mike Rojas
Made with: HTML, CSS
This dropdown menu has an attractive green background color with text set in white.
Cool Dropdown Menu Effects Pure Css
Author: Ruslan Pivovarov
Made with: HTML, CSS
This option is ideal for websites with a cool CSS design.
Zigzag dropdown menu concept
Author: Catalin Rosu
Made with: HTML, CSS
As the name suggests, the sub-menu descends with a fancy zig-zag animation effect. Catalin Rosu outdid herself with this unique style. She used none of the simple effects evident in other layouts.
Simple, CSS only, responsive menu
Author: John Urbank
Made with: HTML, CSS
A responsive dropdown menu option where each sub-menu descends in a white box when the menu list is being hovered.
Simple CSS Dropdown
Author: Doane Hopkins
Made with: HTML, CSS
Here is a simple, multi level CSS dropdown menu.
Pure Css dropdown menu
Author: Sathish Kumar
Made with: HTML, CSS
In this option, the menu display appears on the right side of the screen. This style is user-friendly and attractive. The drop-down menu appears in a white box with blue words.
CodePen Challenge: Menu
Author: Adam Kuhn
Made with: HTML, CSS
This cool animated dropdown menu appears as an orange layout with the sub-menu including a creative symbol in a box. The code can be customized to include your client’s text-decoration symbols.
CSS Dropdown Menu
Author: Guil H
Made with: HTML, CSS
A cool dropdown menu designed with a customizable code.
Responsive Pure CSS Dropdown Menu
Author: Eric Musser
Made with: HTML, CSS
The vibrant color of this option will bring life to your client’s site.
Menu cpc-menus #CodePenChallenge
Author: Vincent Durand
Made with: HTML, CSS
The CSS dropdown menu appears when a user hovers over main items.
Super Simple Dropdown Menu
Author: Anastasiia P
Made with: HTML, CSS
Using CSS and a few nested unordered lists, one can create a dropdown menu in no time at all.
FAQs about CSS dropdown menus
1. What is a CSS dropdown menu, and how does it work?
Users can choose an option from a list of options when using a CSS dropdown menu. A list of sub-items appears when a user mouses over or clicks on a certain menu item, offering them extra possibilities. When a user interacts with a dropdown menu, a dropdown list is created using HTML and CSS and displayed.
2. How do you create a dropdown menu using CSS?
You must create an HTML unordered list (ul) and apply CSS styling to it in order to create a CSS dropdown menu. When a user hovers over or clicks on a menu item, the dropdown list can be displayed using the CSS pseudo-classes:hover or:focus. The positioning, layout, and motion of the dropdown list can also be adjusted using CSS.
3. What are the benefits of using a CSS dropdown menu over a traditional menu?
In comparison to traditional menus, CSS dropdown menus have a number of advantages, such as the ability to save space on the website, give a user experience that is more streamlined and effective, and need less clicks to access content. In addition to being more adaptable and responsive, CSS dropdown menus let designers make menus that complement the look of their website and function well on all devices.
4. How can you style a CSS dropdown menu to match your website’s design?
The look of your website can be matched by styling a CSS dropdown menu with CSS properties like background-color, color, font-size, padding, and margin. Moreover, you can design pre-built CSS dropdown menus with adjustable styles using CSS frameworks like Bootstrap and Materialize.
5. Can you create a responsive CSS dropdown menu that works on mobile devices?
Yes, you can use CSS media queries to modify the menu’s look based on the screen size to build a responsive CSS dropdown menu that functions on mobile devices. Furthermore, CSS frameworks like Foundation and Bulma, which already have responsive CSS dropdown menus built in, can be used.
6. How do you add hover effects to a CSS dropdown menu?
Using the CSS pseudo-class:hover to alter the appearance of the menu item as the user hovers over it, you may apply hover effects to a CSS dropdown menu. For instance, when a user hovers over a menu item, you can alter the background color, text color, or add a border to it.
7. Can you create a multi-level dropdown menu using CSS?
Yes, you can use CSS to nest multiple unordered lists (ul) inside of each other to create a multi-level dropdown menu. The sub-menu that appears when the user hovers over or selects a parent menu item is represented by each nested ul.
8. How do you position a CSS dropdown menu on the page?
The CSS attributes position, top, left, right, and bottom can be used to place a CSS dropdown menu on the page. Use position: absolute and top: 100%, for instance, to place the dropdown menu exactly beneath the parent menu item.
9. How do you ensure a CSS dropdown menu is accessible to users with disabilities?
You should utilize contrasting colors and font sizes, provide clear and concise descriptions for each menu item, and provide keyboard accessibility utilizing the Tab and Enter keys to make sure a CSS dropdown menu is usable by users with impairments. ARIA properties like aria-haspopup and aria-expanded can also be used to give assistive technology more information.
10. What are some best practices for designing and implementing CSS dropdown menus?
Maintaining a menu that is straightforward and simple to use, labeling each menu item clearly, making sure the menu is accessible to all users, testing the menu on various devices and screen sizes, and optimizing the menu for quick loading times are some best practices for designing and implementing CSS dropdown menus.
To make it simple for customers to grasp the objective of each menu item, you should also refrain from utilizing an excessive number of sub-menu levels, keep the menu items organized and consistent, and use straightforward language. Last but not least, it’s critical to think about the overall user experience and make sure the dropdown menu improves the website’s usability and accessibility.
Ending thoughts on these HTML And CSS Dropdown Menus
If you have coding skills, you may be able to create a dropdown menu from scratch. But a dropdown menu is a time-saving solution when setting up an app or website’s interface.
So, don’t hesitate. Choose a stylish dropdown menu from this list.
If you liked this article about CSS dropdown menus, you should check out this article about CSS progress bars.
There are also similar articles discussing CSS select styles, CSS loaders, CSS login forms, and CSS background patterns.
And let’s not forget about articles on CSS image effects, CSS border animations, CSS arrows, and CSS cards.
