Tailwind CSS vs Bootstrap vs Bulma
A side-by-side look at how actively Tailwind CSS, Bootstrap and Bulma are developed on GitHub — popularity, contributor base, commit activity and how quickly issues and pull requests move.
What the numbers say
- Bootstrap is the most-starred of the 3, with 175k stars — about 3.5× Bulma's 50k.
- Over the 52 weeks to the snapshot, Tailwind CSS recorded the most commits (412), against 6 for Bulma.
- Bootstrap has closed or merged the most pull requests in its lifetime: 16k.
- Relative to its popularity, Tailwind CSS carries the lightest open-issue load: 0.4 open issues per 1,000 stars, versus 7.0 for Bulma.
Head-to-head
Snapshot taken 30 September 2026.
| Metric | Tailwind CSS Active | Bootstrap Active | Bulma Active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | 98k | 175k | 50k |
| Forks | 7.2k | 79k | 3.9k |
| Contributors | 376 | 1.7k | 430 |
| Commits, last 52 weeks | 412 | 176 | 6 |
| Open issues | 36 | 103 | 348 |
| Open pull requests | 52 | 122 | 179 |
| Closed / merged PRs | 4.4k | 16k | 1.0k |
| Watchers | 750 | 6.6k | 574 |
| Last push | 25 Sep 2026 | 29 Sep 2026 | 21 Sep 2026 |
| Latest release | v4.3.3 (Jul 2026) | v5.3.8 (Aug 2025) | 1.0.4 (Apr 2025) |
| Main language | TypeScript | MDX | CSS |
| Licence | MIT | MIT | MIT |
| Created | Oct 2017 | Jul 2011 | Jan 2016 |
The wide bar is that repository’s share of the largest value in its own row — half the length means half the number. The thin gauge beneath it is the same row rescaled from its smallest value to its largest, which makes a close gap such as 61k against 59k visible; on that gauge the row’s lowest value always sits at zero however big it is, so read it as a spread and never as a quantity. Bars compare repositories with each other and never one metric against another. Colour identifies the repository, matching the dot beside its name. On the two issue rows a longer bar means more open work, which is usually the opposite of better. The highlighted cell is the highest value in a row. “Active / Slowing / Dormant” is a simple heuristic from how recently code was pushed and open issues per star — a starting point, not a verdict. Stars measure popularity, not quality.
Open these in the live comparer →