TimelineJS alternative: Boromlia vs TimelineJS

Choose Boromlia if

• You do not want the source data sitting in a spreadsheet published to the web.
• You want a form for each event instead of spreadsheet rows: every event needs a title and a date, so a blank cell or a stray row cannot break the timeline.
• You want more than one view: a river, cards, a map, spans and, on Advanced, a sortable table.
• You want to filter by tag, period or source, and export only what the filter shows.

Stay with TimelineJS if

• It has to be free: TimelineJS costs nothing and needs no account.
• You want to self-host it or change the code: it is open source.
• You rely on its built-in embeds for media from many sites.

The main difference: an app instead of a spreadsheet to maintain

With TimelineJS the spreadsheet is the database, so it has to stay published, and anyone who can edit it can change the timeline. In Boromlia each event is entered in a form and stored as data: a date or a range, a place with coordinates, a source, people, tags, rich text and images. The embed, on Advanced for a public or shared timeline, is one iframe tag that shows the live timeline as you add to it.

Boromlia vs TimelineJS, feature by feature

TimelineJS details as published or reported, last checked 2026-09-06. TimelineJS is a trademark of its owner, and Boromlia is not affiliated with it.

Views of one record. Boromlia: River, Cards, Map and Spans on every plan; Ribbon, Log and Doc on Advanced. Switch between them without re-entering anything. TimelineJS: One horizontal slide-through timeline

Map of located events. Boromlia: Yes. Each event with a place is a numbered waypoint, joined by an optional route line, on a choice of four base maps. TimelineJS: to be verified

Sortable table view. Boromlia: Yes, the Log style on Advanced: one row per event, with the columns you choose, sortable. TimelineJS: to be verified

Ranges and single dates. Boromlia: Both, on every plan, on one shared axis, so a two-week phase and a single decision sit together. TimelineJS: to be verified

Time scale. Boromlia: Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years, set per timeline. BC dates too. TimelineJS: to be verified

Source on every event. Boromlia: Yes, a field of its own, and a filter shows the events with or without one. TimelineJS: to be verified

Photographs per event. Boromlia: Up to 10 per event. Bulk upload takes up to 300 at a time and reads the date and GPS position from each file. TimelineJS: Yes, by URL, with built-in support for many media sites

Event description. Boromlia: Rich text, plus people, place and tags on the same event. TimelineJS: Headline and text per slide, in fixed spreadsheet columns

Chapters and tags. Boromlia: Chapters group events into periods; tags cut across them. TimelineJS: to be verified

Filters. Boromlia: Search, tag, category, period, and with or without a source, remembered per timeline. TimelineJS: to be verified

Bulk import. Boromlia: CSV, TSV or TXT on Advanced, up to 1,000 rows at a time. You confirm the columns and preview every row before saving. TimelineJS: A Google Sheet published to the web is the data source

Export. Boromlia: On every plan: an A4 PDF, a CSV of every field, and the photos as a zip with an index file. TimelineJS: to be verified

Embed in another page. Boromlia: On Advanced, for a public or shared timeline: one iframe tag, no script, no key. It shows the live timeline. TimelineJS: Yes, free, as an iframe

Default visibility. Boromlia: Private until you share or publish it. A share link is read-only unless you allow more, and kept out of search results. TimelineJS: The source spreadsheet is published to the web

Working with other people. Boromlia: On Advanced, you can let anyone with the share link add events. Each signs in with a free account; no seat to buy. TimelineJS: Anyone who can edit the Google Sheet

Runs in. Boromlia: Any browser. Windows, macOS, Linux, tablets and phones, with nothing installed. TimelineJS: Any browser, no account

Price. Boromlia: Free plan, $2.99 once per extra timeline of up to 50 events, $12 a month, or $49.99 once with nothing to renew. TimelineJS: Free, open source

Moving from TimelineJS to Boromlia

• In Google Sheets, choose File, Download, Comma-separated values.
• TimelineJS keeps year, month and day in separate columns. Join them into one date column, such as 2024-05-17, before you save.
• In Boromlia, choose Add multiple from a file (Advanced): Headline to Name, Text to Description.
• Preview every row and import. Then make the timeline public or shared, and swap the old embed code on your page for the new iframe.

Questions

Can I import my TimelineJS spreadsheet?

Yes, on Advanced. Download the sheet as CSV, join the year, month and day columns into one date column, and import it. Every row is previewed as the event it will become before anything is saved. Images do not come across as photos, so add them to each event afterwards.

How is a Boromlia timeline edited?

In the app, through a form with a field for each part of an event: the date or range, the place, the source, the people, the tags, the description and the photos. There is no separate document to keep published alongside it.

What happens to an embedded timeline over time?

It keeps showing the live timeline, so events you add or change later appear in the embed the next time the page loads. What the frame shows around the events (the name, the description, the cover, a pinned style) is written into the snippet, so changing those embed settings later leaves a snippet already pasted as it was. If you make the timeline private, the embed shows a short "not available" note instead.