Stack Sorted is a web design inspiration library whose unit of collection is the fragment, not the whole site. It clips specific interface elements — buttons, cards, hover effects, scroll effects and the like — from well-designed websites and arranges them by element type. The problem it solves is a practical one: when you only want to see how a button could be designed, you don't have to open site after site in a whole-site gallery hunting for the relevant part. The project's code is public on GitHub (repo created 2023-07-18), built by design-focused YouTube creator Juxtopposed, and the site describes itself as "an open-source project that categorizes websites, not by general design or topic but specific elements" (source: site footer).
The screenshot above shows the homepage (captured 2026-09-21). The root domain redirects to the Buttons category: a left sidebar lists all element categories, while the grid on the right shows the entries in the current one, each labeled with its source site. In the top-right corner sit an "Add a Site" submission entry point and a "Collecting designs... Join in!" notice.
At a Glance
- URL: https://stacksorted.com/
- Type: Web design inspiration library organized by UI element (public project, open to submissions)
- Cost: Free; nothing is paid
- Sign-up: None required; there is no account system
- Interface language: English only (checked 2026-09-21)
- Tech stack: Built with Svelte 3 and Rollup; the collection lives directly in the repo's src/database.js (source: package.json)
Background
Juxtopposed is a content creator working on design and development topics; her GitHub profile links to her YouTube channel, and the projects page on her personal site lists Stack Sorted alongside the color tool Realtime Colors, Color Gamut Test and others. On 2023-07-23 she published the video world's shortest UI/UX design course, in which she designed the site; the description reads "Check out the site we just designed together: stacksorted.com". The GitHub repository was created on 2023-07-18, marking the project's public debut (checked 2026-09-21).
The code is publicly available, with 313 stars, 35 forks and 17 contributors as of 2026-09-21. One caveat matters here: although both the README and the site call the project open-source, the repository still ships no LICENSE file — a contributor opened a PR to add one back in November 2024, and it remains unmerged as of 2026-09-21. Code being visible is not the same as code being legally licensed, so anyone planning to reuse the implementation should take note.
Browsing and What's Inside
Stack Sorted has no search box; all browsing happens through the sidebar categories. As of 2026-09-21, database.js holds 17 element categories: buttons (41 entries), grids (20), cards (15), custom-cursor (14), text-effects (14), interactive-elements (13), scroll-effects (10), hover-effects (9) and links (9), plus smaller ones such as border-effects, image-effects, loading-animation, hamburger-menu, headers, progress-bar, icons and search. In total there are 180 entries representing about 115 distinct sites — the same site can appear under several categories for different elements.
The screenshot above shows the Hover Effects category (captured 2026-09-21), with the current category highlighted in the sidebar. The collection leans toward design-forward product sites, studios and portfolios — Linear, Cuberto and Vercel, for example.
Clicking a card opens a modal. Its centerpiece is a GIF preview of the element in motion (124 of the 180 entries include a GIF; otherwise a static screenshot is shown), with a "Visit Site" link to the original page at the bottom. Where an implementation was recorded, a "Check Code" button leads to the corresponding CodePen demo (45 entries carry a code link). The modal supports keyboard control (Esc to close, arrow keys to move between entries in the same category) and has its own shareable URL in the form /<category>/<site-name>.
The screenshot above shows the modal for the Send Potion entry (captured 2026-09-21): the GIF loops the button's hover animation, with the CodePen link at bottom left and the original-site link at bottom right.
Submissions and Maintenance
There are two ways to submit a site (checked 2026-09-21):
- The "Add a Site" button in the top-right corner points to a Google Form asking for the site link and a category (new categories may be proposed). The form states that entries "will be added in less than 48 hours if they look good", and leaving an email address gets you a notification.
- Alternatively, open a pull request against database.js in the GitHub repo, adding screenshots to
public/images. The contribution rules ask for only "the best, most creative designs on the web" — generic component designs are not wanted; code links are CodePen-only for now; screenshots must crop precisely to the element (200×344), and GIFs must stay under 10MB.
The actual maintenance pace deserves attention: the last merged commit on the repository dates to 2025-03-31, and as of 2026-09-21 eight pull requests remain open (PR list), including a site submission from June 2026 and a scrolling fix from August 2026. The form's "48 hours" promise no longer matches the observed processing speed, so a submission may well go unreviewed for a long time.
Copyright and Content Policy
What Stack Sorted displays are screenshots and design fragments of third-party websites. Its position is stated in the site footer: "All screenshots, designs, and codes are © of their respective owners." — ownership stays with the original creators, and Stack Sorted merely catalogs and displays them. The site itself has no dedicated privacy policy or terms page and simply uses Google Analytics (checked 2026-09-21).
The screenshot above shows the footer area (captured 2026-09-21): the "What is Stack Sorted?" blurb and the © notice at bottom left, followed by links to the author's Twitter, the database.js submission entry point, the GitHub repository, a Ko-fi support page and a Twitter share link.
Inclusion is manually curated ("if they look good"), with no public documentation of automated review or permission verification. For site owners who want their work removed, the public channel is GitHub Issues: the open issue list currently contains two removal requests (from August and October 2024, both still open as of 2026-09-21), so responsiveness on that front appears limited as well. Entry accuracy also depends on manual upkeep — a PR fixing an outdated link has sat unmerged, and individual listed sites may have been redesigned or gone offline.
Where It Fits
- Designing a specific component: when you need a button, card, loading animation or hover treatment, you can scan dozens of real-product takes in one pass — far more focused than whole-site galleries.
- Looking for implementation code: roughly a quarter of the entries link to CodePen demos you can inspect and adapt.
- Teaching UI design: the element-by-element structure works well as a case index when explaining interface details.
Limitations
- Curation has effectively stalled: the last merged commit was 2025-03-31, and submissions from 2026 remained unprocessed as of 2026-09-21, so the collection is unlikely to grow in the near term.
- Small and uneven coverage: about 180 entries overall, with some categories holding only 3–6 items (icons 3, search 3, hamburger-menu 4) — nowhere near the breadth of larger inspiration platforms.
- Categories only, no search or filters: there is no way to query by keyword, color or technology; browsing category by category is the only option.
- English-only interface, and the collection skews toward English-language sites.
- No LICENSE in the repo: the code is public but carries no open-source license, leaving reuse legally uncertain.
Related References
Whole-site inspiration platforms such as Awwwards catalog and judge complete websites, which suits studying overall visual style and site structure; Stack Sorted's element-level granularity is the differentiator, making the two more complementary than competing. Realtime Colors, by the same author, covers the palette side and pairs naturally with this site.
