head to head · open source
next.js vs gatsby
next.js has 142,343 GitHub stars, 32,220 forks, 3,358 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gatsby has 55,939 stars, 10,115 forks, 450 open issues and last shipped yesterday. next.js leads on adoption by 154% (142,343 vs 55,939 stars). next.js is written in JavaScript under MIT; gatsby is written in JavaScript under MIT. next.js has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, gatsby 18%. next.js was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (blog, compiler, react, static-site-generator), 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
| next.js | gatsby | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 142K | ★ 56K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 32K | ⑂ 10K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick next.js if
- You weight community size — 142K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gatsby if
- You want the gatsby feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and gatsby fits your workflow better
About next.js
Next.js is a JavaScript framework for building web applications, distributed under the MIT license and described by its maintainers as "The React Framework." It extends the latest React features so that developers can build full stack web applications, and it integrates Rust based JavaScript tooling to produce fast builds. The project lives in the React and Node ecosystem, and its topic list places it among static site generators, server rendering tools, hybrid and universal rendering approaches, and compiler oriented front end tooling. The repository is ten years old and has been pushed as recently as September …
read the full next.js overview →
About gatsby
Gatsby is a free and open source, React based framework for building websites and applications, released under the MIT license and written primarily in JavaScript. It combines the control and scalability of dynamically rendered sites with the speed of static site generation, and it sits in the JavaScript and React ecosystem as a static site generator, a compiler, and a GraphQL driven build tool. The project has been developed for roughly eleven years, carries 55,939 stars and 10,117 forks on GitHub, and currently has 450 open issues.
read the full gatsby overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is next.js or gatsby more popular?
next.js has 142,343 GitHub stars and gatsby has 55,939. next.js has the larger community by that measure.
Are next.js and gatsby free?
Both are open source. next.js is licensed under MIT and gatsby under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between next.js and gatsby?
next.js is written in JavaScript and gatsby 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, next.js or gatsby?
Choose next.js if you want the larger community (142,343 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gatsby if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.