head to head · open source
Lightpanda vs node-red-contrib-uibuilder
Lightpanda has 35,418 GitHub stars, 1,681 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped today. node-red-contrib-uibuilder has 528 stars, 92 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. Lightpanda leads on adoption by 6,608% (35,418 vs 528 stars). Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0; node-red-contrib-uibuilder is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. Lightpanda has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, node-red-contrib-uibuilder 17%. Lightpanda was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Lightpanda | node-red-contrib-uibuilder | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 528 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Zig | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 92 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lightpanda if
- You weight community size — 35K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Zig
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick node-red-contrib-uibuilder if
- You want the node-red-contrib-uibuilder feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and node-red-contrib-uibuilder fits your workflow better
About Lightpanda
Lightpanda is a headless browser built from scratch in Zig, designed specifically for AI agents and automation tasks. It is not a fork of Chromium or WebKit but a new implementation targeting performance and efficiency in automated web interactions. It lives in the browser automation ecosystem, competing with tools like Puppeteer and Playwright that typically rely on Chromium based headless modes.
read the full Lightpanda overview →
About node-red-contrib-uibuilder
UIBUILDER FOR Node RED Easy data driven web UI's. Batteries included! UIBUILDER is a Node RED add on that makes it easy to build custom web UIs that talk to your flows (web applications). It supports no code & low code nodes (create UI from Node RED itself), full code front end templates you edit, and everything in between. No code and Low code options, driven from Node RED Dynamic data interchange Node RED browser No front end framework needed but use any of them if you want to Integrate with existing web development workflows It includes many helper features that can reduce or eliminate the need to write code f…
read the full node-red-contrib-uibuilder overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightpanda or node-red-contrib-uibuilder more popular?
Lightpanda has 35,418 GitHub stars and node-red-contrib-uibuilder has 528. Lightpanda has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightpanda and node-red-contrib-uibuilder free?
Both are open source. Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and node-red-contrib-uibuilder under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lightpanda and node-red-contrib-uibuilder?
Lightpanda is written in Zig and node-red-contrib-uibuilder 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, Lightpanda or node-red-contrib-uibuilder?
Choose Lightpanda if you want the larger community (35,418 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose node-red-contrib-uibuilder if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.