head to head · open source
imgui vs entt
imgui has 77,026 GitHub stars, 12,105 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. entt has 13,253 stars, 1,124 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. imgui leads on adoption by 481% (77,026 vs 13,253 stars). imgui is written in C++ under MIT; entt is written in C++ under MIT. imgui has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, entt 8%. entt was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (game-development), 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 | entt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-11-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 entt if
- You want the entt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and entt 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 entt
EnTT has been a dream so far, we haven't found a single bug to date and it's super easy to work with Every EnTT User Ever EnTT is a header only, tiny and easy to use library for game programming and much more written in modern C++ . Among others, it's used in Minecraft by Mojang, the ArcGIS Runtime SDKs by Esri and the amazing Ragdoll . If you don't see your project in the list, please open an issue, submit a PR or add the \ entt tag to your topics ! :+1: Do you want to keep up with changes or do you have a question that doesn't require you to open an issue? Join the gitter channel and the discord server, meet…
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Frequently asked questions
Is imgui or entt more popular?
imgui has 77,026 GitHub stars and entt has 13,253. imgui has the larger community by that measure.
Are imgui and entt free?
Both are open source. imgui is licensed under MIT and entt under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between imgui and entt?
imgui is written in C++ and entt 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, imgui or entt?
Choose imgui if you want the larger community (77,026 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose entt if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.