head to head · open source
bento vs IronCalc
bento has 5,129 GitHub stars, 356 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. IronCalc has 4,166 stars, 184 forks, 256 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. bento leads on adoption by 23% (5,129 vs 4,166 stars). bento is written in TypeScript under MIT; IronCalc is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. bento has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, IronCalc 4%. bento was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (self-hosted), 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
| bento | IronCalc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.1K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 356 | ⑂ 184 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick bento if
- You weight community size — 5.1K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick IronCalc if
- You want the IronCalc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and IronCalc fits your workflow better
About bento
Bento is an MIT licensed, local first PowerPoint alternative that ships as a single self contained HTML file, in which the deck carries its own viewer, presenter and editor so that anyone who opens it in a modern browser can edit or present it without installing anything.
read the full bento overview →
About IronCalc
IronCalc is a spreadsheet engine and set of tools. It is the main engine of the IronCalc ecosystem, and it lives in the Rust open source spreadsheet ecosystem. The project provides a work in progress engine, an xlsx reader, and an xlsx writer. It is designed to be embedded, self hosted, or run in the browser.
read the full IronCalc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is bento or IronCalc more popular?
bento has 5,129 GitHub stars and IronCalc has 4,166. bento has the larger community by that measure.
Are bento and IronCalc free?
Both are open source. bento is licensed under MIT and IronCalc under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between bento and IronCalc ?
bento is written in TypeScript and IronCalc in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, bento or IronCalc ?
Choose bento if you want the larger community (5,129 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose IronCalc if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.