head to head · open source
open-design vs balm-ui
open-design has 100,437 GitHub stars, 11,575 forks, 1,090 open issues and last shipped today. balm-ui has 507 stars, 30 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. open-design leads on adoption by 19,710% (100,437 vs 507 stars). open-design is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; balm-ui is written in SCSS under MIT. open-design has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, balm-ui 6%. open-design was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (design-systems), 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
| open-design | balm-ui | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 100K | ★ 507 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | SCSS |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 30 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick open-design if
- You weight community size — 100K 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 balm-ui if
- You want the balm-ui feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches SCSS
- You evaluated both and balm-ui fits your workflow better
About open-design
OpenDesign is an open source, local first desktop design application for macOS and Windows that turns the coding agent already installed on a developer's machine into the design engine, producing prototypes, dashboards, decks, images, and motion graphics as real files exported to HTML, PDF, PPTX, and MP4.
read the full open-design overview →
About balm-ui
BalmUI [![BalmUI version][balm ui image]][balm ui url] [![MDC version][mdc web image]][mdc web url] Next Generation Material UI for Vue.js Introduction BalmUI is a modular and customizable Material Design UI library for Vue 3. balm ui@8 supports for Vue 2 Features Enterprise class UI designed for web applications A set of high quality Vue components/plugins/directives/utils out of the box Powerful theme customization in every detail Integrated a complete set of the latest Material Icons All components and plugins is highly customizable, and can be used individually TypeScript support (updating) Documentation &…
read the full balm-ui overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is open-design or balm-ui more popular?
open-design has 100,437 GitHub stars and balm-ui has 507. open-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are open-design and balm-ui free?
Both are open source. open-design is licensed under Apache-2.0 and balm-ui under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between open-design and balm-ui?
open-design is written in TypeScript and balm-ui in SCSS. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, open-design or balm-ui?
Choose open-design if you want the larger community (100,437 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose balm-ui if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.