head to head · open source
ECC vs bb
ECC has 267,866 GitHub stars, 40,036 forks, 239 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. bb has 3,946 stars, 553 forks, 463 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ECC leads on adoption by 6,688% (267,866 vs 3,946 stars). ECC is written in JavaScript under MIT; bb is written in TypeScript under MIT. ECC has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, bb 14%. bb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (claude-code), 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
| ECC | bb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 268K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-09-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 40K | ⑂ 553 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ECC if
- You weight community size — 268K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bb if
- You want the bb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and bb fits your workflow better
About ECC
ECC is an MIT licensed open source agent harness performance optimization system that gives AI coding agents a coordinated engineering workflow — plan, test, implement, review, verify, remember, improve — for developers working in Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Cursor, and other harnesses.
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.
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Frequently asked questions
Is ECC or bb more popular?
ECC has 267,866 GitHub stars and bb has 3,946. ECC has the larger community by that measure.
Are ECC and bb free?
Both are open source. ECC is licensed under MIT and bb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ECC and bb?
ECC is written in JavaScript and bb 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, ECC or bb?
Choose ECC if you want the larger community (267,866 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose bb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.