head to head · open source
imgui vs ursina
imgui has 76,795 GitHub stars, 12,071 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ursina has 2,601 stars, 359 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. imgui leads on adoption by 2,853% (76,795 vs 2,601 stars). imgui is written in C++ under MIT; ursina is written in Python under MIT. imgui has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, ursina 14%. imgui was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (game-development, 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.
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Side by side
| imgui | ursina | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-23 | 2026-10-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 359 |
| 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 ursina if
- You want the ursina feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ursina 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 ursina
ursina ʕ •ᴥ•ʔゝ□ Website Discord Twitter Patreon Sponsor An easy to use game engine/framework for python. Getting Started 1) Install Python 3.10 or newer. 2) Open cmd/terminal and type: To get the newest, in development version from GitHub, install it like this: If you want to easily edit the source, it's recommended to clone the git repo and pip install with editable flag like this. Make sure you have git installed. Also install any of the optional dependencies you want from the list below, or install them all with: On some systems you might have to use pip3 instead of pip in order to use Python 3 and not the…
read the full ursina overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is imgui or ursina more popular?
imgui has 76,795 GitHub stars and ursina has 2,601. imgui has the larger community by that measure.
Are imgui and ursina free?
Both are open source. imgui is licensed under MIT and ursina under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between imgui and ursina?
imgui is written in C++ and ursina in Python. 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 ursina?
Choose imgui if you want the larger community (76,795 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ursina if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.