head to head · open source
open-design vs themes
open-design has 98,002 GitHub stars, 11,374 forks, 1,090 open issues and last shipped today. themes has 8,721 stars, 337 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. open-design leads on adoption by 1,024% (98,002 vs 8,721 stars). open-design is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; themes is written in TypeScript under MIT. open-design has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, themes 4%. 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 | themes | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 98K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-25 | 2026-04-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 337 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick open-design if
- You weight community size — 98K 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 themes if
- You want the themes feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and themes 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 themes
Radix Themes is an MIT licensed, open source component library for the React ecosystem, written in TypeScript and maintained by WorkOS, intended for developers and design system teams that want accessible user interfaces built quickly and maintained easily.
read the full themes overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is open-design or themes more popular?
open-design has 98,002 GitHub stars and themes has 8,721. open-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are open-design and themes free?
Both are open source. open-design is licensed under Apache-2.0 and themes under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between open-design and themes?
open-design is written in TypeScript and themes 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 themes?
Choose open-design if you want the larger community (98,002 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose themes if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.