Step progress bar with pure CSS

In this short blog post, I will show you how to create a custom step progress bar with CSS, which can be easily integrated into every application.

Let’s first start with the easy part – the HTML.

<div class="stepper-wrapper">
  <div class="stepper-item completed">
    <div class="step-counter">1</div>
    <div class="step-name">First</div>
  </div>
  <div class="stepper-item completed">
    <div class="step-counter">2</div>
    <div class="step-name">Second</div>
  </div>
  <div class="stepper-item active">
    <div class="step-counter">3</div>
    <div class="step-name">Third</div>
  </div>
  <div class="stepper-item">
    <div class="step-counter">4</div>
    <div class="step-name">Forth</div>
  </div>
</div>

As you see, the stepper-item element has 2 additional classes – active and completed. In our application, you would most probably set these classes dynamically. Now let’s focus on the harder part – the styling:

.stepper-wrapper {
  margin-top: auto;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between;
  margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.stepper-item {
  position: relative;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  align-items: center;
  flex: 1;

  @media (max-width: 768px) {
    font-size: 12px;
  }
}

.stepper-item::before {
  position: absolute;
  content: "";
  border-bottom: 2px solid #ccc;
  width: 100%;
  top: 20px;
  left: -50%;
  z-index: 2;
}

.stepper-item::after {
  position: absolute;
  content: "";
  border-bottom: 2px solid #ccc;
  width: 100%;
  top: 20px;
  left: 50%;
  z-index: 2;
}

.stepper-item .step-counter {
  position: relative;
  z-index: 5;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  width: 40px;
  height: 40px;
  border-radius: 50%;
  background: #ccc;
  margin-bottom: 6px;
}

.stepper-item.active {
  font-weight: bold;
}

.stepper-item.completed .step-counter {
  background-color: #4bb543;
}

.stepper-item.completed::after {
  position: absolute;
  content: "";
  border-bottom: 2px solid #4bb543;
  width: 100%;
  top: 20px;
  left: 50%;
  z-index: 3;
}

.stepper-item:first-child::before {
  content: none;
}
.stepper-item:last-child::after {
  content: none;
}

Voila! With this CSS, you get a nice-looking progress stepper component, which is easily customizable at the same time. The lines that connect the different steps are represented as ::before and ::after pseudo-elements.
Keep in mind that if you decide to scale the element containing the step, you should also change the top value of the pseudo-elements. If you use SASS or CSS variables, you can easily adjust this, by making the top value half of the circle’s height.

Below you will find the code in action:

Enjoy!