Tailwind is first. Bootstrap is second. Bulma is third.
That's the whole leaderboard, and it has been remarkably stable for years. Every survey, every npm download chart, every "what CSS framework should I use in 2026" thread lands in the same order.
So let's talk about third place — because third place is the interesting place to be.
Congrats on being different. Now here's what to do.
Picking a React component library is one of the bigger architectural calls in a project, and the honest answer to “which one” depends entirely on what you’re building. We maintain bestax, a component library for Bulma v1, so we spend a lot of time studying the field. This post maps it out fairly and in the open: every user-facing capability across seven React libraries, with each cell linking straight to that library’s own documentation so you can check our work.
It’s a point-in-time capture — the first edition of a series we’ll refresh regularly. We’re calling it The State of React, with a nod to Armin’s long-running radio show. Over time we’d like it to grow into a wider read on the React ecosystem; for now, it stays focused on component libraries.
The table below reflects each library as of July 27, 2026. Component catalogs move fast — the latest edition of The State of React always has the freshest data.
In the ring: bestax (Bulma v1), react-bulma-components (the other Bulma wrapper), Mantine, MUI, Chakra UI, shadcn/ui, and React-Bootstrap.
We're excited to announce a major addition to bestax-bulma: Extra Components. This release adds 15 new components that extend the core library with advanced UI controls and form inputs.
We've added 12 new HTML element wrapper components that bring Bulma's helper props to everyday HTML elements like links, paragraphs, lists, and code blocks.
Want to build a React app with Bulma CSS in 2025? Forget the 10-step tutorials. Skip the configuration hell. Just run one command and start coding.
One command. Under 30 seconds. You're building.
Hey React developers! 👋 Are you looking for a modern, actively maintained component library for Bulma CSS? Let me introduce you to bestax-bulma (pronounced "bee-stacks"), a TypeScript-first React component library that brings the full power of Bulma v1 to your React applications.
Opensource! Free as in beer🍺
We're excited to announce version 2.0.0 of @allxsmith/bestax-bulma, bringing powerful new configuration and theming capabilities that fully embrace Bulma v1's modern approach to CSS customization.
This release introduces two major features that transform how you can customize and integrate Bulma components: ConfigProvider for global component configuration (including CSS class prefixing), and Theme for comprehensive CSS variable-based theming.
With ConfigProvider, you can now globally configure all bestax-bulma components using the useConfig hook, enabling seamless integration with other CSS frameworks through class prefixing. The new Theme component allows you to customize Bulma's appearance using CSS variables at both global and scoped nested levels, giving you unprecedented control over your design system.
We need to address an important note about versioning: we accidentally bumped this release to 2.0.0 instead of the intended 1.2.0. This became a major release due to a semantic-release configuration issue, when it should have been a minor release.
However, all changes are completely backward compatible - version 2.x.x is fully compatible with 1.x.x. We decided it's easier to move forward with the new version number rather than create confusion with republishing.
We completed the first full release, with a react component per each Bulma component.
The first release is published under @allxsmith/bestax-bulma.
The package name changed from bestax-lib to bestax-bulma to help users search and find the project.
We reset the package version number from 1.x and 2.x to 1.0.0 since this is the first true release under the new package name.
Guess what? We finally have typedoc running and generating documentation for our project.
We've added a few components representing Bulma elements