head to head · open source
open-design vs kurtosis
open-design has 97,331 GitHub stars, 11,300 forks, 1,090 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kurtosis has 553 stars, 100 forks, 313 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. open-design leads on adoption by 17,501% (97,331 vs 553 stars). open-design is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; kurtosis is written in Go under Apache-2.0. open-design has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, kurtosis 18%. open-design was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | kurtosis | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 97K | ★ 553 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 100 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick open-design if
- You weight community size — 97K 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 kurtosis if
- You want the kurtosis feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kurtosis 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 kurtosis
Kurtosis is an Apache 2.0, Go based platform for packaging and launching blockchain infrastructure and other backend stacks, aimed at developers and teams who need reproducible, ephemeral development and test environments that run on either Docker or Kubernetes.
read the full kurtosis overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is open-design or kurtosis more popular?
open-design has 97,331 GitHub stars and kurtosis has 553. open-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are open-design and kurtosis free?
Both are open source. open-design is licensed under Apache-2.0 and kurtosis under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between open-design and kurtosis?
open-design is written in TypeScript and kurtosis in Go. 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 kurtosis?
Choose open-design if you want the larger community (97,331 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose kurtosis if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.