head to head · open source
bb vs CrossUI
bb has 4,084 GitHub stars, 583 forks, 463 open issues and last shipped today. CrossUI has 2,030 stars, 36 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. bb leads on adoption by 101% (4,084 vs 2,030 stars). bb is written in TypeScript under MIT; CrossUI is written in JavaScript under MIT. bb has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, CrossUI 2%. bb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (devtools, ide), 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
| bb | CrossUI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.1K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-03 | 2026-06-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 583 | ⑂ 36 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick bb if
- You weight community size — 4.1K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CrossUI if
- You want the CrossUI feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and CrossUI fits your workflow better
About bb
bb is the agent IDE that builds itself: an MIT licensed TypeScript application that lets developers drive coding agents from a desktop app, a web app, a CLI, or an HTTP API, and extend the tool itself while it runs.
About CrossUI
CrossUI is a free, cross browser JavaScript framework for building rich single page web applications, paired with a visual editor that writes edits directly into your real React source code.
read the full CrossUI overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bb or CrossUI more popular?
bb has 4,084 GitHub stars and CrossUI has 2,030. bb has the larger community by that measure.
Are bb and CrossUI free?
Both are open source. bb is licensed under MIT and CrossUI under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bb and CrossUI?
bb is written in TypeScript and CrossUI in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, bb or CrossUI?
Choose bb if you want the larger community (4,084 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose CrossUI if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.