head to head · open source
imgui vs due
imgui has 76,491 GitHub stars, 12,072 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. due has 965 stars, 175 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. imgui leads on adoption by 7,827% (76,491 vs 965 stars). imgui is written in C++ under MIT; due is written in Go under MIT. imgui has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, due 18%. imgui was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (game-engine), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| imgui | due | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 965 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-02 | 2026-10-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 175 |
| 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 due if
- You want the due feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and due 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 due
due is a high performance distributed game server framework written in Go, intended for teams building and scaling online game backends.
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Gaming projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Gaming field.
Frequently asked questions
Is imgui or due more popular?
imgui has 76,491 GitHub stars and due has 965. imgui has the larger community by that measure.
Are imgui and due free?
Both are open source. imgui is licensed under MIT and due under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between imgui and due?
imgui is written in C++ and due in Go. 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 due?
Choose imgui if you want the larger community (76,491 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose due if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.