head to head · open source
rea vs Onlook
rea has 51,381 GitHub stars, 9,263 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped today. Onlook has 26,887 stars, 2,125 forks, 380 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. rea leads on adoption by 91% (51,381 vs 26,887 stars). rea is written in TypeScript under MIT; Onlook is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. rea has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Onlook 8%. rea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (claude-code, codex), 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 | Onlook | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 51K | ★ 27K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-10 | 2026-08-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.3K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rea if
- You weight community size — 51K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Onlook if
- You want the Onlook feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Onlook fits your workflow better
About rea
REA is an open source MCP server and CLI that lets AI coding agents — and your terminal — reverse engineer native binaries, JavaScript and Electron apps, .NET assemblies, and websites, with evidence attached to every conclusion.
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rea or Onlook more popular?
rea has 51,381 GitHub stars and Onlook has 26,887. rea has the larger community by that measure.
Are rea and Onlook free?
Both are open source. rea is licensed under MIT and Onlook under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rea and Onlook?
rea is written in TypeScript and Onlook 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, rea or Onlook?
Choose rea if you want the larger community (51,381 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Onlook if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.