Toggling content visibility is one of the most common interactions in modern web development. Whether you're building an accordion FAQ section, a collapsible sidebar, a dark mode toggle, or a mobile menu, the ability to show and hide elements programmatically sits at the heart of interactive user interfaces. As web standards have evolved, developers now have access to a rich toolkit of approaches--from pure HTML solutions that require no JavaScript at all, to sophisticated CSS techniques that leverage modern pseudo-classes and custom properties, to the occasional strategic use of JavaScript for complex state management.
This guide explores the different and modern ways to toggle content in 2025, examining the strengths and trade-offs of each approach so you can make informed decisions for your projects.
Understanding Content Toggling Fundamentals
Before diving into specific techniques, it's essential to understand what "toggling content" actually means in a web development context. At its core, content toggling involves changing the visibility state of an element--switching it between being visible and hidden. However, the way this visibility change occurs and its effects on the surrounding layout vary significantly depending on which approach you choose.
When you hide an element, you have two primary considerations: whether the element should continue to occupy space in the document layout, and whether the element and its contents should be accessible to assistive technologies like screen readers. Some techniques hide elements visually while preserving their layout footprint, making them invisible but still affecting the positioning of surrounding content. Other techniques remove elements from the layout entirely, as if they never existed. Still other approaches make elements invisible and remove them from the accessibility tree, ensuring screen readers cannot access their content while hidden.
Understanding these distinctions will help you select the appropriate technique for each situation based on your specific requirements for layout behavior and accessibility. For a deeper dive into visibility states, see our guide on toggle visibility when hiding elements.
The CSS Visibility Property
The visibility property in CSS provides straightforward control over element visibility while maintaining predictable effects on layout. According to MDN Web Docs, the visibility property shows or hides an element without changing the layout of the document, and can also hide rows or columns in tables.
The visibility property accepts several values, each with distinct behavior:
visible: The default value--the element box is rendered normally.hidden: The element box is invisible (not drawn), but it still affects layout as normal. Descendants remain visible if they have visibility set tovisible. The element cannot receive focus.collapse: For table rows and columns, space is removed as ifdisplay: nonewere applied. For other elements, behaves likehidden.
When implementing visibility-based toggles in your web development projects, this property offers a performant solution for hiding content while preserving layout stability.
1/* Hide element but preserve layout space */2.element {3 visibility: hidden;4}5 6/* Show hidden element */7.element {8 visibility: visible;9}10 11/* Collapse table rows/columns */12.table-row {13 visibility: collapse;14}15 16/* Transition visibility for smooth animations */17.animated-element {18 visibility: visible;19 transition: visibility 0.3s, opacity 0.3s;20}21 22.animated-element.hidden {23 visibility: hidden;24 opacity: 0;25}The CSS Display Property
While not strictly a "visibility" technique, the display property provides the most complete way to remove elements from the document layout. When you set display: none on an element, it is completely removed from the layout--not only is it invisible, but it occupies no space and does not participate in the document flow.
MDN notes that to both hide an element and remove it from the document layout, you should set the display property to none instead of using visibility. This distinction is crucial for understanding when to use each approach:
- Use
visibility: hiddenwhen you want an element hidden but still affecting surrounding layout - Use
display: nonewhen you want the element completely removed as if it never existed
For our web development projects, choosing the right property is essential for creating performant interfaces that meet accessibility standards.
1/* Completely remove element from layout */2.element {3 display: none;4}5 6/* Show element with block layout */7.element {8 display: block;9}10 11/* Toggle with class-based approach */12.hidden {13 display: none !important;14}15 16/* Flex-based hidden element */17.flex-item.hidden {18 display: none;19}Native HTML Approaches
Modern HTML provides built-in elements for common toggling patterns, eliminating the need for JavaScript in many scenarios. These native solutions come with built-in accessibility features and follow web standards, making them reliable choices for production applications.
The Details and Summary Elements
The <details> and <summary> elements form a native HTML mechanism for creating collapsible widgets. The details element creates a disclosure widget in which information is visible only when the widget is toggled to an "open" state, and the summary element provides a summary, caption, or legend for the details widget.
This combination requires no JavaScript to function--clicking the summary element automatically toggles the visibility of the details content. The browser handles all interaction logic, including keyboard navigation and focus management. For scenarios like FAQ sections, collapsible descriptions, or expandable content panels, the details/summary combination is often the optimal choice because of its simplicity and built-in accessibility. To learn more about modern CSS techniques that complement native HTML, explore our guide on CSS custom properties.
1<!-- Native collapsible FAQ section -->2<details class="faq-item">3 <summary>What is the CSS visibility property?</summary>4 <div class="faq-content">5 <p>The visibility property shows or hides an element without changing the layout of the document.</p>6 </div>7</details>8 9<details class="faq-item">10 <summary>How does display: none differ from visibility: hidden?</summary>11 <div class="faq-content">12 <p>display: none completely removes the element from layout, while visibility: hidden hides the element but preserves its space.</p>13 </div>14</details>15 16<!-- Styled details element -->17<details class="collapsible-section">18 <summary>19 <span class="summary-text">Click to expand</span>20 <span class="summary-icon"></span>21 </summary>22 <div class="collapsible-content">23 <!-- Your content here -->24 </div>25</details>CSS-Based Toggle Patterns
Beyond native HTML elements, CSS provides several patterns for creating toggle functionality without JavaScript. These techniques leverage CSS pseudo-classes, custom properties, and clever selectors to create interactive elements purely through stylesheets.
The Checkbox Hack
The "checkbox hack" is a well-established CSS pattern that uses a hidden checkbox input combined with the :checked pseudo-class to control the visibility or styling of sibling elements. The basic structure involves placing a checkbox input before the content you want to control, then using the adjacent sibling combinator to apply styles based on the checkbox state.
Creating Toggle Switches with CSS
A particularly popular application of the checkbox hack is creating toggle switch UI components--those sliding on/off controls commonly used for settings and preferences. The implementation involves several key CSS techniques.
First, appearance: none removes the default checkbox styling so you can create a custom visual design. The switch track (the background of the toggle) is styled using the :checked state to change colors, while the switch thumb uses the ::after pseudo-element with transform and translate properties to slide horizontally when checked. As demonstrated in the Go Make Things guide, this approach combined with the role="switch" attribute creates accessible toggle switches that work without JavaScript.
Understanding these CSS patterns is essential for any web developer looking to build modern, interactive interfaces without relying heavily on JavaScript.
1<!-- Checkbox hack for toggle content -->2<input type="checkbox" id="toggle-content" class="toggle-input">3<label for="toggle-content" class="toggle-label">4 Show Advanced Options5</label>6<div class="toggle-content">7 <!-- Hidden content that appears when checkbox is checked -->8 <p>Advanced options are now visible.</p>9</div>1/* Toggle switch using checkbox hack */2.toggle-input {3 appearance: none;4 width: 3.5em;5 height: 2em;6 background: #e5e5e5;7 border-radius: 99em;8 position: relative;9 cursor: pointer;10 transition: background-color 0.2s ease-in-out;11}12 13.toggle-input::after {14 content: '';15 position: absolute;16 width: 1.6em;17 height: 1.6em;18 background: white;19 border-radius: 50%;20 top: 0.2em;21 left: 0.2em;22 transition: transform 0.2s ease-in-out;23 box-shadow: 0 2px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);24}25 26.toggle-input:checked {27 background: #0088cc;28}29 30.toggle-input:checked::after {31 transform: translateX(1.5em);32}33 34/* Label styling */35.toggle-label {36 display: flex;37 align-items: center;38 gap: 0.75em;39 cursor: pointer;40}Accessibility Considerations
When implementing content toggles, accessibility must be a primary concern. Users of assistive technologies should be able to understand the toggle's purpose, control it using their preferred input methods, and receive appropriate feedback about its state.
Screen Reader Considerations
The visibility: hidden value has specific accessibility implications that developers must understand. According to MDN documentation, using a visibility value of hidden on an element will remove it from the accessibility tree, causing the element and all its descendant elements to no longer be announced by screen reading technology. This behavior is often desirable when hiding content permanently.
For toggle switches specifically, using the role="switch" attribute provides appropriate semantics for screen readers. This ARIA role indicates that the element functions as a switch (on/off) rather than a checkbox, which helps screen reader users understand the intended interaction pattern.
Keyboard Navigation
Toggle controls must be keyboard accessible. Using native elements like <details> and <summary> provides keyboard navigation automatically--users can open and close details elements using the Enter and Space keys. Custom implementations using the checkbox hack inherit the native keyboard behavior of checkboxes, which is also accessible.
Building accessible web interfaces is a core part of our custom web development services, ensuring all users can interact with your content effectively.
Performance Considerations
The choice of toggling technique can significantly impact rendering performance, particularly for complex pages or frequently updated interfaces.
Layout Thrashing and Reflows
Using display: none triggers a layout recalculation (reflow) when the element is shown or hidden, as the browser must recalculate the positions of all affected elements. The visibility property is generally more performant than display for toggling because visibility changes don't affect layout--only painting. When an element changes visibility state, the browser only needs to repaint the affected regions rather than recalculating the entire layout.
Accessibility Tree Impact
Removing elements from the accessibility tree affects how assistive technologies interact with the page. Be aware that large numbers of elements being added to or removed from the accessibility tree can impact the performance of assistive technology rendering.
Animation Performance
Animating toggle transitions requires careful attention to animation performance. The transform and opacity properties are the most performant properties to animate because they can be handled by the GPU. For more insights on CSS performance, see our guide on negative margins and CSS features.
Our approach to front-end optimization considers these performance implications to deliver fast, responsive user experiences.
1/* Performant toggle animation using transform and opacity */2.toggle-panel {3 opacity: 1;4 transform: translateY(0);5 transition: opacity 0.3s ease, transform 0.3s ease;6 overflow: hidden;7}8 9.toggle-panel.hidden {10 opacity: 0;11 transform: translateY(-10px);12 pointer-events: none;13}14 15/* Toggle switch with GPU-accelerated animation */16.toggle-thumb {17 transition: transform 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1);18 will-change: transform;19}Best Practices and Recommendations
Based on the research and analysis, here are key recommendations for implementing content toggles in modern web applications:
For simple collapsible content, use the native <details> and <summary> elements. They require no JavaScript, provide built-in accessibility, and are supported by all modern browsers.
For toggle switches in settings panels, implement a CSS-only solution using the checkbox hack combined with the role="switch" attribute for accessibility. Use CSS custom properties for theming and customization, and add transitions for smooth visual feedback.
When choosing between visibility and display, consider whether the element should continue to occupy space in the layout. Use visibility: hidden when you want to hide an element while preserving its layout footprint. Use display: none when you want to completely remove the element from the layout.
For complex toggle patterns that require state coordination or integration with application state, use JavaScript strategically. However, prefer to let CSS handle the visual state changes based on class names controlled by JavaScript.
Always consider accessibility from the start--test with keyboard navigation, verify that screen readers announce the appropriate information, and ensure toggle states are clearly communicated through visual feedback and ARIA attributes.
By following these best practices, you can create toggle patterns that are performant, accessible, and maintainable across your web applications.