head to head · open source
AppSmith vs rea
AppSmith has 41,040 GitHub stars, 4,794 forks, 4,467 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rea has 29,472 stars, 3,500 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped today. AppSmith leads on adoption by 39% (41,040 vs 29,472 stars). AppSmith is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; rea is written in TypeScript under MIT. AppSmith has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, rea 12%. rea 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 | rea | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 29K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| 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 rea if
- You want the rea feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and rea 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 rea
REA is an open source MCP server and CLI that lets AI coding agents — and your terminal — reverse engineer native binaries, JavaScript and Electron apps, .NET assemblies, and websites, with evidence attached to every conclusion.
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Frequently asked questions
Is AppSmith or rea more popular?
AppSmith has 41,040 GitHub stars and rea has 29,472. AppSmith has the larger community by that measure.
Are AppSmith and rea free?
Both are open source. AppSmith is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rea under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AppSmith and rea?
AppSmith is written in TypeScript and rea 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 rea?
Choose AppSmith if you want the larger community (41,040 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rea if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.