head to head · open source
open-design vs m3e-canvas
open-design has 96,938 GitHub stars, 11,262 forks, 1,090 open issues and last shipped yesterday. m3e-canvas has 7,412 stars, 772 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. open-design leads on adoption by 1,208% (96,938 vs 7,412 stars). open-design is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; m3e-canvas is written in TypeScript under MIT. open-design has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, m3e-canvas 10%. 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 | m3e-canvas | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 97K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 772 |
| 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 m3e-canvas if
- You want the m3e-canvas feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and m3e-canvas 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 m3e-canvas
M3E Canvas is a browser based design tool, written in TypeScript and released under the MIT licence, that lets people sketch Material 3 Expressive screens, link those screens into tappable flows, and copy out a natural language prompt for an AI coding tool such as Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Cursor.
read the full m3e-canvas overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is open-design or m3e-canvas more popular?
open-design has 96,938 GitHub stars and m3e-canvas has 7,412. open-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are open-design and m3e-canvas free?
Both are open source. open-design is licensed under Apache-2.0 and m3e-canvas under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between open-design and m3e-canvas?
open-design is written in TypeScript and m3e-canvas 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, open-design or m3e-canvas?
Choose open-design if you want the larger community (96,938 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose m3e-canvas if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.