Current Bika LIMS releases are built on the SENAITE core

Current Bika LIMS releases are built on the SENAITE core. SENAITE is the maintained product line that grew out of first-generation Bika. Bika Lab Systems packages that core with add-ons, implementation and hosting. SENAITE did not replace Bika as a rival product; Bika ships SENAITE

Comparison articles that treat Bika and Senaite as rival products are describing an old split, not how current Bika releases are built. If you run Bika today, you are on that core

If you are choosing a LIMS, the useful question is not “Bika or Senaite?” It is whether you want the open core alone, or the core with the packaging and professional support that sit around it

Bika 1–3 (from the early 2000s) established the laboratory model. Around 2018 that line was refactored for performance and maintainability and renamed Senaite, in part so the open project and the Cape Town company were not stuck with the same name which was unfair to other contributors

Senaite is the lean, modular product (core + official add-ons). Bika Lab Systems still contributes to that core and packages it as Bika LIMS (e.g. Ingwe / Bika 4) with further add-ons, Docker packaging, and implementation/hosting

Architecture, UI, API, licence, and the Python/Plone path are shared. Primary LIMS features are the same. The difference is what is bundled and who you pay for help

What to choose

Senaite if you want the upstream product, official docs, and a provider from the Senaite network — and you will assemble add-ons yourself.

Bika if you want that same core already combined with Bika’s add-ons, and you want Bika’s implementation and support. Bika provides a superb user manual as well as training videos and tutorials

You do not pick a different workflow engine. You pick core only versus core plus Bika’s packaging. Comparison tables that score “Bika vs Senaite” feature-by-feature as if they were LabWare vs Thermo are describing 2017, not a current Bika release.