head to head · open source
rea vs netbeans
rea has 427,743 GitHub stars, 106,451 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped yesterday. netbeans has 3,145 stars, 944 forks, 1,081 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rea leads on adoption by 13,501% (427,743 vs 3,145 stars). rea is written in TypeScript under MIT; netbeans is written in Java under Apache-2.0. rea has attracted 25% as many forks as stars, netbeans 30%. rea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (java), 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
| rea | netbeans | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 428K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 106K | ⑂ 944 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rea if
- You weight community size — 428K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick netbeans if
- You want the netbeans feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and netbeans fits your workflow better
About rea
English · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Türkçe · Русский · Tiếng Việt · ไทย · Deutsch · Español · Français · Українська · Polski · Português (Brasil) · العربية · فارسی REA: Reverse Engineer Anything One MCP for reverse engineering across binaries, applications, and runtime behavior. See a feature you like. Understand how it works, down to the binary level. Website · Guides · Showcases Quick start · How REA works · What you can analyze · Showcases · FAQ · Documentation npx rea agents setup Join the Reverse Engineering Community Discord · Q&A · Show and Tell See a feature in an app that you want in your own product?…
About netbeans
Apache NetBeans Apache NetBeans is an open source development environment, tooling platform, and application framework. Build status GitHub actions Apache Jenkins: Linux: Windows: License Status ( Apache Rat and ant verify libs and licenses ) Requirements Git Ant JDK 21 or above (to build and run NetBeans) Notes: NetBeans license violation checks are managed via the rat exclusions.txt file. Set JAVA HOME and ANT HOME appropriately or leave them undefined. Building NetBeans Build the default release config (See the cluster.config property.) Build the basic project (mainly Java features): Build the full project…
read the full netbeans overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rea or netbeans more popular?
rea has 427,743 GitHub stars and netbeans has 3,145. rea has the larger community by that measure.
Are rea and netbeans free?
Both are open source. rea is licensed under MIT and netbeans under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rea and netbeans?
rea is written in TypeScript and netbeans in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, rea or netbeans?
Choose rea if you want the larger community (427,743 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose netbeans if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.