head to head · open source
imgui vs flame
imgui has 77,094 GitHub stars, 12,108 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped yesterday. flame has 10,819 stars, 1,067 forks, 90 open issues and last shipped yesterday. imgui leads on adoption by 613% (77,094 vs 10,819 stars). imgui is written in C++ under MIT; flame is written in Dart under MIT. imgui has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, flame 10%. flame 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 | flame | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-11-13 | 2026-11-13 |
| 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 flame if
- You want the flame feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and flame 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 flame
A Flutter based game engine. Documentation The full documentation for Flame can be found on docs.flame engine.org. To change the version of the documentation, use the version selector noted with version: in the top of the page. Note : The documentation that resides in the main branch is newer than the released documentation on the docs website. Other useful links: The official Flame site. Examples of most features which can be tried out from your browser. To access the code for each example, press the button in the top right corner. Tutorials Some simple tutorials to get started. API Reference The generated…
read the full flame overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is imgui or flame more popular?
imgui has 77,094 GitHub stars and flame has 10,819. imgui has the larger community by that measure.
Are imgui and flame free?
Both are open source. imgui is licensed under MIT and flame under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between imgui and flame?
imgui is written in C++ and flame in Dart. 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 flame?
Choose imgui if you want the larger community (77,094 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose flame if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.