head to head · open source
imgui vs WickedEngine
imgui has 76,463 GitHub stars, 12,069 forks, 1,227 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WickedEngine has 7,259 stars, 779 forks, 118 open issues and last shipped yesterday. imgui leads on adoption by 953% (76,463 vs 7,259 stars). imgui is written in C++ under MIT; WickedEngine is written in C++ under MIT. imgui has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, WickedEngine 11%. imgui 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 | WickedEngine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-10-02 | 2026-10-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 779 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick imgui if
- You weight community size — 76K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick WickedEngine if
- You want the WickedEngine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and WickedEngine 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 WickedEngine
Wicked Engine is an open source 3D engine with modern graphics, written in C++, for developers who want a C++ graphics framework, a standalone 3D editor, Lua scripting, or a codebase to learn from.
read the full WickedEngine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is imgui or WickedEngine more popular?
imgui has 76,463 GitHub stars and WickedEngine has 7,259. imgui has the larger community by that measure.
Are imgui and WickedEngine free?
Both are open source. imgui is licensed under MIT and WickedEngine under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between imgui and WickedEngine?
imgui is written in C++ and WickedEngine 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 WickedEngine?
Choose imgui if you want the larger community (76,463 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose WickedEngine if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.