head to head · open source
Avalonia vs emacs-application-framework
Avalonia has 31,530 GitHub stars, 2,825 forks, 1,875 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. emacs-application-framework has 3,488 stars, 245 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 28 days ago. Avalonia leads on adoption by 804% (31,530 vs 3,488 stars). Avalonia is written in C# under MIT; emacs-application-framework is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Avalonia has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, emacs-application-framework 7%. Avalonia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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
| Avalonia | emacs-application-framework | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 3.5K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 245 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Avalonia if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick emacs-application-framework if
- You want the emacs-application-framework feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and emacs-application-framework fits your workflow better
About Avalonia
Avalonia is a cross platform UI framework for .NET, written in C and driven by XAML. It provides a flexible styling system and targets a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and WebAssembly. The project is mature and production ready, and it is used by companies such as Schneider Electric, Unity, JetBrains and GitHub. It lives in the .NET ecosystem and is distributed through the NuGet package manager.
read the full Avalonia overview →
About emacs-application-framework
Emacs Application Framework (EAF) is a free/libre, open source framework that extends the graphical capabilities of Emacs, built for hackers who work with numerous languages and text, are keyboard driven, and want maximum freedom, extensibility, and introspectivity over their tools — potentially to the point of living in Emacs.
read the full emacs-application-framework overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Avalonia or emacs-application-framework more popular?
Avalonia has 31,530 GitHub stars and emacs-application-framework has 3,488. Avalonia has the larger community by that measure.
Are Avalonia and emacs-application-framework free?
Both are open source. Avalonia is licensed under MIT and emacs-application-framework under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Avalonia and emacs-application-framework?
Avalonia is written in C# and emacs-application-framework in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Avalonia or emacs-application-framework?
Choose Avalonia if you want the larger community (31,530 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose emacs-application-framework if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.