Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Bulma VS Sencha Touch

Compare Bulma VS Sencha Touch and see what are their differences

Bulma logo Bulma

Bulma is an open source CSS framework based on Flexbox and built with Sass. It's 100% responsive, fully modular, and available for free.

Sencha Touch logo Sencha Touch

The leading mobile web app framework based on HTML5 for amazing mobile apps.
  • Bulma Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-14
  • Sencha Touch Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-24

Bulma features and specs

  • Simple and Elegant Design
    Bulma offers a clean, modern aesthetic that looks great out of the box. This eliminates much of the need for extensive customization to achieve a professional look.
  • Responsive Layouts
    Bulma is built with a flexible grid system that ensures your designs are responsive. This makes it straightforward to create web pages that look great on both desktop and mobile devices.
  • Ease of Use
    Bulma has a straightforward class-based syntax that is easy to understand and implement. This simplifies the development process, especially for newcomers.
  • BEM Methodology
    Bulma employs Block Element Modifier (BEM) methodology for CSS, which helps in writing clean, understandable, and scalable code.
  • No JavaScript Dependencies
    Bulma is purely a CSS framework, meaning it doesn't come bundled with JavaScript. This allows you to integrate it with any JavaScript framework of your choice, like React or Vue.js, without any conflicts.
  • Well-Documented
    The official Bulma website has extensive documentation, including examples and code snippets, which makes it easier to learn and implement.
  • Active Community
    Bulma has an active community of developers who contribute to its development and are available for support, which can be helpful when facing issues or needing guidance.

Possible disadvantages of Bulma

  • Limited Customizability
    While Bulma is designed to be easy to use, its simplicity can sometimes limit your ability to customize components as deeply as you might be able to with other frameworks.
  • Lack of Components
    Bulma does not come with as many built-in components as some other CSS frameworks like Bootstrap. You might find yourself needing to create custom components for some features.
  • No JavaScript
    The lack of built-in JavaScript functionality means you will need to write or integrate JavaScript separately for more interactive elements, such as modals or carousels.
  • Performance Overhead
    Like most CSS frameworks, using Bulma can introduce some performance overhead due to unused CSS. You'll need to use a tool like PurgeCSS to remove unused styles for optimal performance.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its simplicity, there can still be a learning curve for developers who are accustomed to other frameworks like Bootstrap or Tailwind CSS.
  • Small Community compared to Others
    While the community is active, it is smaller compared to more established frameworks like Bootstrap, potentially making it harder to find solutions to less common issues.
  • Semantic Class Names
    Bulma emphasizes semantic class names following the BEM methodology, which can be verbose and may require a change in practice for some developers.

Sencha Touch features and specs

  • Rich UI Components
    Sencha Touch provides a wide range of pre-built, customizable UI components like carousels, lists, and forms, which enable developers to create visually appealing and functional mobile applications with ease.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Sencha Touch is designed to work across various mobile platforms, allowing developers to build applications that run on iOS, Android, and other devices from a single codebase.
  • MVC Architecture
    Sencha Touch follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture, which helps in organizing code and improving maintainability by separating the application logic from the user interface.
  • Community and Support
    Sencha Touch has an active community and provides extensive documentation, forums, and support resources which are beneficial for both new and experienced developers working with the framework.

Possible disadvantages of Sencha Touch

  • Performance Issues
    Applications built with Sencha Touch can sometimes experience performance issues, especially on older or lower-powered devices, due to its heavy reliance on JavaScript.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Sencha Touch has a steep learning curve, particularly for developers who are new to the framework or JavaScript/HTML5 development in general, due to its extensive feature set and complex API.
  • Licensing Costs
    Sencha Touch is not open source and requires a commercial license for certain features, which can be a significant cost factor for startups or small businesses.
  • Limited Native Features Access
    While Sencha Touch allows for cross-platform development, accessing device-specific native features might require additional plugins or integrations, which can complicate the development process.

Analysis of Sencha Touch

Overall verdict

  • Sencha Touch was considered a good choice at its peak for building mobile web applications when it came to leveraging web technologies for multi-platform compatibility. However, as the mobile development ecosystem evolved and other tools like React Native, Flutter, and native solutions gained traction, Sencha Touch's popularity and usage have seen a decline. Its integration into Ext JS also means that it no longer exists as a standalone product, which may limit its relevance for modern projects.

Why this product is good

  • Sencha Touch was a popular framework for building cross-platform mobile applications using web standards like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. It allowed developers to create rich, native-like mobile apps with a single codebase for different platforms. The framework offered a comprehensive set of UI components, animation capabilities, and built-in support for touch and gesture events, making it suitable for complex applications. It was particularly favorable for organizations and developers who were already invested in JavaScript and wanted a robust tool for building mobile apps without diving into native development.

Recommended for

    Sencha Touch might be recommended for teams maintaining legacy applications that already use the framework. Furthermore, it's beneficial for developers with a strong preference for JavaScript-based solutions and those who require a powerful UI library. However, for new projects, especially those prioritizing up-to-date support, performance, and community adoption, exploring other modern frameworks might be advisable.

Bulma videos

S.H. Figuarts BULMA Dragon Ball Action Figure Review

More videos:

  • Review - S.H. Figuarts Dragon Ball Adventure Begins Bulma Review
  • Review - Bandai SH Figuarts BULMA Review BR / DiegoHDM

Sencha Touch videos

Phone Gap and Sencha Touch

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Bulma and Sencha Touch)
Design Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Development Tools
80 80%
20% 20
Developer Tools
94 94%
6% 6
JavaScript Framework
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Bulma and Sencha Touch. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Bulma and Sencha Touch

Bulma Reviews

22 Best Bootstrap Alternatives & What Each Is Best For
I chose Bulma for its efficient use of Flexbox, a layout model that allows a responsive design with minimal effort. This efficiency sets Bulma apart from many other CSS frameworks. In my judgment, Bulma stands out as the best choice for developers seeking a powerful, Flexbox-based CSS framework for creating flexible and intuitive web designs.
Source: thectoclub.com
15 Top Bootstrap Alternatives For Frontend Developers in 2024
Suppose you want to learn the valuable skill of working with the mobile-first Bulma framework. In that case, we highly recommend taking the "Master Bulma CSS Framework" course by Jeppe Schaumburg Jensen on Udemy. In this course, you will master the latest version of Bulma and create real projects and themes while learning HTML, web design, and coding.
Source: coursesity.com
9 Best Bootstrap Alternatives | Best Frontend Frameworks [2024]
Bulma comes with a beautiful range of colors out-of-the-box, and it won’t be wrong if we call it the most beautiful framework out there in the market. It can be used directly to get really nice-looking websites with the very least effort.
Source: hackr.io
11 Best Material UI Alternatives
Bulma’s simplicity, extensive documentation, and community support make it a popular choice for projects of all sizes. Whether you’re building a landing page, a dashboard, or an eCommerce site, Bulma provides a solid foundation for building aesthetically pleasing and functional interfaces.
Source: www.uxpin.com
Top 10 Best CSS Frameworks for Front-End Developers in 2022
Although new, Bulma has quickly climbed up the list of top 10 CSS frameworks. It has no JavaScript components (no .js) and the most readable CSS classes. To create grids, Bulma has a powerful system known as tiles, making the page elegant and neat. It is highly modular and easy to learn. Although small, Bulma has a community of passionate individuals wanting to change the...
Source: hackr.io

Sencha Touch Reviews

Top JavaScript Frameworks For Mobile App Development
Sencha Touch has now been merged with Sencha Ext JS. Sencha Ext JS has been one of the most effective JavaScript frameworks to create cross-platform mobile applications. It consists of well tested and good performance UI components like pivot grid, trees, lists, forms, HTML5 calendar, D3 adapters, etc. that help in getting the best of results.
Source: medium.com
9 Top JavaScript Mobile Frameworks To Know In 2020
Sencha Touch(similar to Ext JS) is said to be the only framework that offers optimal solutions to developers create fast and impressive mobile applications that work on Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, and more. It comes with lots of creative and useful components that work efficiently on all types of mobile applications. Here is a glimpse of the features.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Bulma seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 115 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Bulma mentions (115)

View more

Sencha Touch mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Sencha Touch yet. Tracking of Sencha Touch recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Bulma and Sencha Touch, you can also consider the following products

Tailwind CSS - A utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom user interfaces.

Appcelerator Titanium - Appcelerator Open Source

Bootstrap - Simple and flexible HTML, CSS, and JS for popular UI components and interactions

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Materialize CSS - A modern responsive front-end framework based on Material Design

Ionic Framework - A front-end SDK to develop applications with HTML5 , CSS3 and JavaScript.