17 Navigation Menus Made With Only CSS (No JavaScript)

We’ve been on a kick lately here at 1WD, looking at ways to code things in pure CSS without utilizing JavaScript, not because we don’t like JavaScript, but when you can avoid using it and still accomplish what you set out to do, why not? So today we’ve gathered 17 examples of navigation menus coded this way. Have a gander and see if there are any you can use in your future projects.

Mobile Overlay Menu

Here’s a hamburger icon that reveals a full screen overlay when clicked, with a nice animation of the hamburger turning into a close “X” icon.

See the Pen Mobile Menu – CSS by Daniel Hearn (@danhearn) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Mobile Fade In Menu

A slightly different approach with the menu fading into view to the right of the hamburger icon. This obviously would work best on small screens with only a few menu items.

See the Pen Mobile Menu (CSS) by AY (@amycodes) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Hamburger Menu With Animations

Some eye-catching animations make this menu stand out.

See the Pen Hamburger Menu – Pure CSS by Mark Claus Nunes (@mnunes) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Tumblr Inspired Menu

As the title says, this menu was inspired by Tumblr and has some slick animation.

See the Pen Tumblr inspired menu (pure css) by John Riordan (@JohnRiordan) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Hidden Navigation Menu

An off-canvas menu that slides out and back in when toggled.

See the Pen Hidden Navigation Menu (Pure CSS) by Jessica Jones (@helloheyjess) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Fade In/Fade Out Menu

A modal window that fades in and out houses the navigation menu in this example.

See the Pen Fade-In/Fade-Out Menu – Pure CSS by Ben Melluish (@pseudosocial) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Mega Menu

How about a full-width mega menu? Nicely done!

See the Pen Mega Menu Pure CSS by Mohammed Naji Abu Alqumboz (@mohnaji94) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Off-Canvas Menu

A well-designed slide-out menu with a nice UX.

See the Pen Off Canvas Menu – Pure CSS by Muhamed Ibrahim (@MuhamedIbrahim) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Animated Radial Menu

Here’s a cool social sharing icon radial menu.

See the Pen Animated menu by Dario Fuzinato (@fuzinato) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Mobile-Like Aside Menu

Another slide out hamburger menu example.

See the Pen mobile-like aside menu pure css by Felipe Nunes (@willpower) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Material Design Round Mask Menu

An interesting concept where the menu appears on hover.

See the Pen Material design round mask menu (pure css) by Sorin Botirla (@sorinbotirla) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Just Another Menu

Not really “just another menu”, this one is a share icon menu that would work well on blog posts or other content that needs to be shared.

See the Pen Just Another Menu(Pure CSS) by Akhil Sai Ram (@akhil_001) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Drop Down Navigation Menu

A drop down menu with sub-items appearing with an interesting animation.

See the Pen #CodePenChallenge: Menu by Hakkam Abdullah (@Moslim) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Radial Menu

Another radial menu not unlike the previous examples.

See the Pen Radial Menu – Pure CSS by Colin Hall-Coates (@Oka) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Fullscreen Overlay Menu

And here’s another fullscreen overlay menu with some nice animation.

See the Pen Fullscreen overlay menu (pure css) by Vlada Oleynik (@vladaoleynik) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Responsive Hamburger Menu

A nice navigation menu that adjusts to various screen sizes like a responsive menu should.

See the Pen Responsive hamburger menu – pure CSS  #1 by mutedblues (@mutedblues) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

Animated Mobile Navigation Menu

Lastly, we have a bottom of the screen mobile device menu with a slick animation.

See the Pen Animated mobile navigation menu (pure CSS) by Lovro Kalan (@LovroKalan) on https://codepen.io‘>CodePen.dark

How Will You Use These Pure CSS Navigation Menus?

We hope these examples of navigation menus will prove useful for your future projects. Be sure to check out our other collections of pure CSS code snippets too!