head to head · open source
AppSmith vs mex
AppSmith has 40,931 GitHub stars, 4,767 forks, 4,467 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. mex has 1,703 stars, 131 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AppSmith leads on adoption by 2,303% (40,931 vs 1,703 stars). AppSmith is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; mex is written in TypeScript under MIT. AppSmith has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, mex 8%. mex was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (developer-tools), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| AppSmith | mex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-23 | 2026-09-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 131 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick AppSmith if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mex if
- You want the mex feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and mex fits your workflow better
About AppSmith
Appsmith is an open source, Apache 2.0 low code platform written primarily in TypeScript that lets teams build custom internal tools such as admin panels, dashboards, and CRUD applications on top of their own databases and APIs.
read the full AppSmith overview →
About mex
MEX is an MIT licensed, TypeScript based tool that gives engineering teams and their coding agents a shared project memory kept as readable Markdown inside the repository and shared through ordinary Git commits, pushes, and pulls.
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Frequently asked questions
Is AppSmith or mex more popular?
AppSmith has 40,931 GitHub stars and mex has 1,703. AppSmith has the larger community by that measure.
Are AppSmith and mex free?
Both are open source. AppSmith is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mex under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AppSmith and mex?
AppSmith is written in TypeScript and mex in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, AppSmith or mex?
Choose AppSmith if you want the larger community (40,931 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mex if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.