head to head · open source
imgui vs wasmi
imgui has 76,934 GitHub stars, 12,107 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wasmi has 2,341 stars, 379 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped yesterday. imgui leads on adoption by 3,186% (76,934 vs 2,341 stars). imgui is written in C++ under MIT; wasmi is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. imgui has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, wasmi 16%. wasmi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | wasmi | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 379 |
| 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 wasmi if
- You want the wasmi feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and wasmi 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 wasmi
[1]: [2]: [3]: [4]: [5]: [6]: [7]: [8]: [license mit badge]: [license apache badge]: Wasmi WebAssembly (Wasm) Interpreter Wasmi is an efficient and lightweight WebAssembly interpreter with a focus on constrained and embedded systems. Distinct Features Simple, correct and deterministic execution of WebAssembly. Efficient and cross platform WebAssembly runtime for no std embedded environments. Compiler/JIT bomb resisting translation. Loosely mirrors the Wasmtime API to act as drop in replacement. 100% WebAssembly spec testsuite compliance. Built in support for fuel metering. Supports the official Wasm C API…
read the full wasmi overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is imgui or wasmi more popular?
imgui has 76,934 GitHub stars and wasmi has 2,341. imgui has the larger community by that measure.
Are imgui and wasmi free?
Both are open source. imgui is licensed under MIT and wasmi under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between imgui and wasmi?
imgui is written in C++ and wasmi in Rust. 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 wasmi?
Choose imgui if you want the larger community (76,934 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose wasmi if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.