Bulma vs. Bootstrap: Which One Should You Choose to Use?

When deciding which CSS framework to use, you need to consider many things, and it’s often challenging to find a comprehensive comparison between different libraries. If you want the comparison or review to be objective, then good luck – it’s likely that you won’t find a review. Along with that, most articles only examine the popular frameworks such as UIKit, Foundation, and Bootstrap and leave all the other ones behind.
In this article, we will be looking at Bootstrap and comparing it to another option on the market: Bulma. As CSS frameworks are fundamental for creating concise, consistent, and effective UI, there are many things we need to consider when choosing which one to work with. That includes things like accessibility, responsiveness, and structure. We will be taking a look at all that below, as well as other key features that might influence your decision.
Let’s get started.

What You Need to Know About Bootstrap

Let’s kick things off with Bootstrap. It’s one of the most consistent and most prominent CSS frameworks, and for good reason: it’s intuitive, powerful, sleek, and has a mobile-first front-end framework which makes it ideal for easier and faster web development. Additionally, it has a terrific community behind it, which is always there to help if needed, and incredible documentation, which is well-organized, detailed, and full of templates and examples which you can immediately use. For beginners, that’s especially great, as every part of the framework is covered and explained in-depth.

For the more advanced developers, Bootstrap offers custom builds. If you don’t want to download the full version of the Bootstrap framework, you can create a custom build with only the CSS and JavaScript components that you need. There’s not much to say about Bootstrap besides the fact that it’s a framework created to help you make responsive, fast, and sleek-looking websites that work well on all devices and always make a good impression.

What You Need to Know About Bulma

Bulma is a lesser-known, open-source CSS framework that’s simple and modern. It depends on flexbox. It’s mainly used for developing a responsive layout structure. It has a predefined color palette, giving developers many design options. It also offers modular columns for easier development, and that, with Bulma’s rich classes and design options, can be used for rapid UI development.

Bulma is quickly becoming a favorite amongst developers, as it has an extensive range of built-in features, which leads to less CSS code writing and faster turnarounds. Additionally, the framework is lightweight and straightforward to customize, enabling developers to do what they love most – build their customizations. It’s also an open-source framework, meaning that its original source code is available to download, and the Bulma community can keep improving and extending its functionality without facing any limitations.

Bulma vs. Bootstrap – Which One Wins the Battle?

Nothing in life is perfect, and that applies to CSS frameworks as well. To determine which framework is better, let’s take a look at their pros and cons first.

Bootstrap: Pros and Cons

Bootstrap is not suffering from a shortage of pros; however, the main ones we need to mention are

• A great community that can help you find whatever you need and provides you with many pre-built components you can add to your site.
• Detailed documentation gives you all the information you need to work well with the framework.
• The opportunity to create your own custom builds that feature only the components you need.
• Great consistency over browsers and devices, thanks to its grid layout with predefined CSS elements and JavaScript components.
• The ability to create responsive, professional-looking websites while remaining easy to learn and adapt to.

Looking at Bootstrap’s cons, we have to mention a few you might want to keep in mind, such as

• It has too many classes because of its over-reliance on HTML.
• Websites can start looking very similar if the initial styles and colors aren’t edited.

Bulma: Pros and Cons

The up-and-coming favorite of developers has a ton of pros to offer:

• It’s modular – you can use only the things you need and leave the rest out.
• It’s easy to learn – Bulma was created to simplify the coding process, and so it offers starter templates, as well as a ton of interactive tutorials.
• Thanks to its source code being available to the public, Bulma is constantly getting improved by its community.
• It’s highly customizable and enables developers to develop their own unique designs.
• Bulma is component rich – it has everything you need to create a good-looking, functional website.

When it comes to Bulma’s cons, there are definitely some to consider:

• It’s still not as popular as Bootstrap, and so its community is a lot smaller.
• Documentation isn’t excellent since the framework is constantly getting updated.

Final Verdict

When we talk about Bulma vs. Bootstrap, It’s hard to say one framework is definitely better than the other, as it all depends on your circumstances and what you hope to get out of your CSS framework. If you’re looking for something that’s reliable, proven over time, and with a ton of documentation that can help you out, then Bootstrap is the right choice for you. On the other hand, if you want to try something new, which allows for more customization, different designs, and is easier to code with, then Bulma might be the framework for you.