head to head · open source
Onlook vs athas
Onlook has 26,920 GitHub stars, 2,204 forks, 380 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. athas has 3,111 stars, 258 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Onlook leads on adoption by 765% (26,920 vs 3,111 stars). Onlook is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; athas is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Onlook has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, athas 8%. athas was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ide), 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
| Onlook | athas | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-08-25 | 2026-10-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 258 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Onlook if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick athas if
- You want the athas feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and athas fits your workflow better
About Onlook
Onlook is an open source, Apache 2.0 visual editor for Next.js and TailwindCSS projects that lets designers and developers edit a running React app in the browser while the underlying code changes in real time.
read the full Onlook overview →
About athas
Athas is a lightweight, cross platform code editor built with Tauri, Rust and React that bundles Git integration, AI agents and Vim keybindings for developers working on macOS, Windows and Linux.
read the full athas overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Onlook or athas more popular?
Onlook has 26,920 GitHub stars and athas has 3,111. Onlook has the larger community by that measure.
Are Onlook and athas free?
Both are open source. Onlook is licensed under Apache-2.0 and athas under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Onlook and athas?
Onlook is written in TypeScript and athas in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Onlook or athas?
Choose Onlook if you want the larger community (26,920 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose athas if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.