head to head · open source
imgui vs bevy
imgui has 76,246 GitHub stars, 12,044 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bevy has 48,268 stars, 4,846 forks, 3,418 open issues and last shipped yesterday. imgui leads on adoption by 58% (76,246 vs 48,268 stars). imgui is written in C++ under MIT; bevy is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. imgui has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, bevy 10%. bevy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (game-development, game-engine, gamedev), 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
| imgui | bevy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 48K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 4.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick imgui if
- You weight community size — 76K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bevy if
- You want the bevy 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 bevy fits your workflow better
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 →
About bevy
Bevy is a free and open source, data driven game engine written in Rust that gives developers a complete 2D and 3D feature set through an Entity Component System architecture, and it is aimed at Rust programmers building games and interactive applications who accept an early stage engine that ships breaking API changes roughly every three months.
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Frequently asked questions
Is imgui or bevy more popular?
imgui has 76,246 GitHub stars and bevy has 48,268. imgui has the larger community by that measure.
Are imgui and bevy free?
Both are open source. imgui is licensed under MIT and bevy under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between imgui and bevy?
imgui is written in C++ and bevy 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, imgui or bevy?
Choose imgui if you want the larger community (76,246 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose bevy if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.