head to head · open source
Godot vs imgui
Godot has 117,424 GitHub stars, 26,796 forks, 18,870 open issues and last shipped yesterday. imgui has 76,246 stars, 12,044 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Godot leads on adoption by 54% (117,424 vs 76,246 stars). Godot is written in C++ under MIT; imgui is written in C++ under MIT. Godot has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, imgui 16%. imgui was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (game-development, game-engine, gamedev, multi-platform), 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
| Godot | imgui | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 117K | ★ 76K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 27K | ⑂ 12K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Godot if
- You weight community size — 117K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick imgui if
- You want the imgui feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and imgui fits your workflow better
About Godot
Godot Engine is a free, MIT licensed, cross platform 2D and 3D game engine that ships an editor, a class reference, export templates, and one click deployment to desktop, mobile, web and console targets, aimed at game developers who want to own their toolchain and their games without royalties.
read the full Godot overview →
About imgui
Dear ImGui is a bloat free, MIT licensed graphical user interface library for C++ that outputs optimized vertex buffers for rendering inside 3D pipeline enabled applications, and it is aimed at programmers building content creation, visualization, and debug tools rather than at developers shipping consumer facing UI.
read the full imgui overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Godot or imgui more popular?
Godot has 117,424 GitHub stars and imgui has 76,246. Godot has the larger community by that measure.
Are Godot and imgui free?
Both are open source. Godot is licensed under MIT and imgui under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Godot and imgui?
Godot is written in C++ and imgui in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Godot or imgui?
Choose Godot if you want the larger community (117,424 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose imgui if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.