head to head · open source
next.js vs gatsby
next.js has 143,474 GitHub stars, 33,621 forks, 3,358 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gatsby has 55,921 stars, 10,089 forks, 450 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. next.js leads on adoption by 157% (143,474 vs 55,921 stars). next.js is written in JavaScript under MIT; gatsby is written in JavaScript under MIT. next.js has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, gatsby 18%. next.js was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (blog, compiler, react, static-site-generator), 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
| next.js | gatsby | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 143K | ★ 56K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 34K | ⑂ 10K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick next.js if
- You weight community size — 143K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gatsby if
- You want the gatsby feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and gatsby fits your workflow better
About next.js
Next.js Getting Started Used by some of the world's largest companies, Next.js enables you to create full stack web applications by extending the latest React features, and integrating powerful Rust based JavaScript tooling for the fastest builds. Visit our Learn Next.js course to get started with Next.js. Visit the Next.js Showcase to see more sites built with Next.js. Documentation Visit to view the full documentation. Community The Next.js community can be found on GitHub Discussions where you can ask questions, voice ideas, and share your projects with other people. To chat with other community members, you…
read the full next.js overview →
About gatsby
Gatsby The future of web development is here. Gatsby is a free and open source framework based on React that helps developers build blazing fast websites and apps. It combines the control and scalability of dynamically rendered sites with the speed of static site generation, creating a whole new web of possibilities. Quickstart · Tutorial · Plugins · Starters · Showcase · Contribute Support: Discussions Gatsby helps professional developers efficiently create maintainable, highly performant, content rich websites. Load Data From Anywhere. Gatsby pulls in data from any data source, whether it’s Markdown files, a…
read the full gatsby overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is next.js or gatsby more popular?
next.js has 143,474 GitHub stars and gatsby has 55,921. next.js has the larger community by that measure.
Are next.js and gatsby free?
Both are open source. next.js is licensed under MIT and gatsby under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between next.js and gatsby?
next.js is written in JavaScript and gatsby 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, next.js or gatsby?
Choose next.js if you want the larger community (143,474 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gatsby if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.