head to head · open source
imgui vs LittleJS
imgui has 76,531 GitHub stars, 12,076 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LittleJS has 4,197 stars, 233 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped today. imgui leads on adoption by 1,723% (76,531 vs 4,197 stars). imgui is written in C++ under MIT; LittleJS is written in JavaScript under MIT. imgui has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, LittleJS 6%. LittleJS 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 | LittleJS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 233 |
| 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 LittleJS if
- You want the LittleJS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and LittleJS 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 LittleJS
LittleJS is a tiny, dependency free 2D and 3D HTML5 game engine written in JavaScript and TypeScript, aimed at web game developers who want a small footprint without giving up rendering, physics, audio, and tooling.
read the full LittleJS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is imgui or LittleJS more popular?
imgui has 76,531 GitHub stars and LittleJS has 4,197. imgui has the larger community by that measure.
Are imgui and LittleJS free?
Both are open source. imgui is licensed under MIT and LittleJS under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between imgui and LittleJS?
imgui is written in C++ and LittleJS in JavaScript. 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 LittleJS?
Choose imgui if you want the larger community (76,531 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose LittleJS if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.