Off-canvas navigation has long been a go-to design pattern for creating navigation interfaces that are both user-friendly and semantically solid. Simply put, off-canvas navigation involves moving the navigation out of view by default and bringing it into view upon interaction. This functionality is easily achieved in modern web browsers using pure CSS (and sometimes HTML5/JavaScript).
The technology is constantly changing, so most of the frameworks have evolved. Many beginners or even experts would easily get lost trying to build one on their own, but here’s a list of resources that should come in handy if you are looking to build one from scratch.
I’ve hand-picked 10 of the best JavaScript and CSS-based mobile app-style off-canvas navigation menus written entirely in Vanilla JavaScript or pure CSS. Enjoy!.
Originally Published Nov 10 2017, updated Feb 20 2025
1. Smooth Collapsible Sidebar Navigation
A modern sidebar navigation with smooth expand & collapse transitions, written in CSS/CSS3 and vanilla JavaScript.
2. Responsive Sidebar Navigation With Hamburger Toggle Button
A modern responsive sidebar panel (also called off-canvas side menu) with an animated hamburger toggle button. Written in plain JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.
3. Beautiful Dashboard Sidebar Menu Template
A beautiful, responsive, collapsible sidebar menu (also called offcanvas menu) created for dashboard & admin panel projects.
4. Responsive Multi-level Sidebar Menu With JavaScript/CSS
A responsive sidebar menu with multi-level sub-menus written in plain JavaScript and CSS.
5. Hamburger Sidebar Navigation In Pure CSS – Sidebar-Menu
A hamburger sidebar navigation (also called off-canvas menu & push menu) built using checkbox input, CSS/CSS3, and Font Awesome icons.
6. Expanding Sidebar Navigation With JavaScript And CSS
A minimal, clean, mobile-friendly expanding sidebar navigation template built on top of JavaScript and CSS.
7. Sidebar Menu With Curved Outside Effect
An expanding sidebar navigation menu with a curved outside effect.
8. Responsive Collapsible Side & Tab Navigation In JavaScript/CSS
A responsive, mobile-friendly, collapsible/expandable sidebar & tab navigation written in plain JavaScript and CSS.
9. Lightweight Mobile App Navigation System – mmenu-light
A light version of the mmenu plugin that makes it easier to create off-canvas hamburger navigation just like the native mobile app.
10. Swipeable Off-canvas Navigation For Mobile – Mobile Swipe Menu
A mobile-first off-canvas navigation that enables the user to reveal and hide the side menu by clicking the toggle button or by swiping the screen.
Conclusion:
Off-canvas navigation is gaining further popularity as more people start to realize its value. Apps like Facebook, Twitter, and even Medium have all decided to go with this navigation mode for the mobile version of their websites.
This is maybe the most important reason why we have decided to create our own list of 10 best off-canvas menus: we want you to use them on your website or app too. Naturally, we couldn’t pick all of our favorites, so the ones we chose are all very reliable in terms of both performance and coding quality.