head to head · open source
open-design vs watching-you
open-design has 104,444 GitHub stars, 11,926 forks, 1,090 open issues and last shipped yesterday. watching-you has 1,706 stars, 54 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. open-design leads on adoption by 6,022% (104,444 vs 1,706 stars). open-design is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; watching-you is written in TypeScript under ISC. open-design has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, watching-you 3%. 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 | watching-you | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 104K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | ISC |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-01-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 54 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick open-design if
- You weight community size — 104K 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 watching-you if
- You want the watching-you feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the ISC license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and watching-you 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 watching-you
Features Be able to watch the mouse or another DOM, or even input values, watch anything you want! Because it is DOM based, it is easy to support RWD Supports multiple frameworks Zero dependency (every framework is!) Written in typescript The size of the core code is only 3kb after gzip compression If the element is not on the screen, it will automatically stop watching Example Login Form Iron Chain Cena is watching you Svg Path Watcher The source code can be found here Storybook watching you's storybook using react, but every framework can do the same thing! Documents ⚠️ The API is still subject to change until…
read the full watching-you overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is open-design or watching-you more popular?
open-design has 104,444 GitHub stars and watching-you has 1,706. open-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are open-design and watching-you free?
Both are open source. open-design is licensed under Apache-2.0 and watching-you under ISC. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between open-design and watching-you?
open-design is written in TypeScript and watching-you 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 watching-you?
Choose open-design if you want the larger community (104,444 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose watching-you if its feature set, stack or ISC licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.