head to head · open source
imgui vs ebiten
imgui has 77,016 GitHub stars, 12,104 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. ebiten has 13,612 stars, 801 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. imgui leads on adoption by 466% (77,016 vs 13,612 stars). imgui is written in C++ under MIT; ebiten is written in Go under Apache-2.0. imgui has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, ebiten 6%. ebiten 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 | ebiten | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 801 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick imgui if
- You weight community size — 77K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ebiten if
- You want the ebiten feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and ebiten fits your workflow better
About imgui
Dear ImGui ===== "Give someone state and they'll have a bug one day, but teach them how to represent state in two separate locations that have to be kept in sync and they'll have bugs for a lifetime." ryg (This library is available under a free and permissive license, but needs financial support to sustain its continued improvements. In addition to maintenance and stability there are many desirable features yet to be added. If your company is using Dear ImGui, please consider reaching out.) Businesses: support continued development and maintenance via invoiced sponsoring/support contracts: E mail: contact @…
read the full imgui overview →
About ebiten
Ebitengine (v2) A dead simple 2D game engine for Go Ebitengine (formerly known as Ebiten) is an open source game engine for the Go programming language. Ebitengine's simple API allows you to quickly and easily develop 2D games that can be deployed across multiple platforms. Website (ebitengine.org) API Reference Cheat Sheet Awesome Ebitengine Platforms Windows macOS Linux FreeBSD Android (Cgo required) iOS (Cgo required) WebAssembly Nintendo Switch (Cgo required) Xbox (Cgo required) (Xbox support is limited and not available to everyone. Negotiations are currently underway to make it accessible to all.) For…
read the full ebiten overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is imgui or ebiten more popular?
imgui has 77,016 GitHub stars and ebiten has 13,612. imgui has the larger community by that measure.
Are imgui and ebiten free?
Both are open source. imgui is licensed under MIT and ebiten under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between imgui and ebiten?
imgui is written in C++ and ebiten 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 ebiten?
Choose imgui if you want the larger community (77,016 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ebiten if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.