Abstract Classical constitutive models exhibit strong mesh dependency during softening and the numerical responses tend towards perfectly brittle behavior upon mesh refinements. Such sensitivity can be avoided by adopting the gradient-enhanced formulation. The implicit approach incorporates the gradient contributions indirectly via an additional Helmholtz equation and requires only C 0 continuity. The explicit approach computes the gradient terms directly from the local field variables. Assuming a weak satisfaction of the yield function, C 1 continuity or C 0 continuity with additional degrees of freedoms in the penalty approach is required. This makes the explicit method less attractive computationally. However, the explicit approach is able to fully regularize some material models where the standard implicit method fails to perform. Drawing analogy to the over-nonlocal integral formulation, the over-implicit-gradient framework is proposed. In addition, an alternative framework for the explicit gradient method requiring only C 0 continuity is proposed. The regularizing effects of the abovementioned two gradient frameworks show promising applications to strain-softening materials.