head to head · open source
open-design vs primitives
open-design has 105,980 GitHub stars, 12,065 forks, 1,090 open issues and last shipped yesterday. primitives has 19,470 stars, 1,300 forks, 356 open issues and last shipped 23 days ago. open-design leads on adoption by 444% (105,980 vs 19,470 stars). open-design is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; primitives is written in TypeScript under MIT. open-design has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, primitives 7%. 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 | primitives | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 106K | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick open-design if
- You weight community size — 106K 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 primitives if
- You want the primitives feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and primitives fits your workflow better
About open-design
OpenDesign: The open source Claude Design alternative ⚡ OpenDesign Cloud — the official model service. One recharge to use both agent and image models inside OpenDesign: GPT, Claude, and DeepSeek for agents; GPT Image 2.0, Seedream 5.0 Pro, and Nano Banana 2.0 for images. 🚀 DeepSeek V4 Flash and V4 Pro are now available. Put top tier intelligence to work across prototypes, decks, design systems, and everyday agent tasks. OpenDesign members can use both models without limits for two weeks, directly inside the app. 🧩 DeepSeek Harness is now supported. Connect DeepSeek's official dsh agent harness to OpenDesign…
read the full open-design overview →
About primitives
Radix Primitives An open source UI component library for building high quality, accessible design systems and web apps. Radix Primitives is a low level UI component library with a focus on accessibility, customization and developer experience. You can use these components either as the base layer of your design system, or adopt them incrementally. Installation First, install pnpm if you haven't already. Open your terminal and run: Then, install the dependencies: Documentation For full documentation, visit radix ui.com/primitives/docs. Releases For changelog, visit radix ui.com/primitives/docs/overview/releases…
read the full primitives overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is open-design or primitives more popular?
open-design has 105,980 GitHub stars and primitives has 19,470. open-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are open-design and primitives free?
Both are open source. open-design is licensed under Apache-2.0 and primitives under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between open-design and primitives?
open-design is written in TypeScript and primitives 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 primitives?
Choose open-design if you want the larger community (105,980 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose primitives if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.