head to head · open source
open-design vs zag
open-design has 98,924 GitHub stars, 11,458 forks, 1,090 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zag has 5,220 stars, 291 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped yesterday. open-design leads on adoption by 1,795% (98,924 vs 5,220 stars). open-design is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; zag is written in TypeScript under MIT. open-design has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, zag 6%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| open-design | zag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 99K | ★ 5.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 291 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick open-design if
- You weight community size — 99K 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 zag if
- You want the zag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and zag 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 zag
Zag is an MIT licensed TypeScript library of framework agnostic, headless component state machines for building an accessible design system once and consuming it in React, Solid, Vue, Svelte or vanilla JavaScript.
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
More Design & Prototyping projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Design & Prototyping field.
Frequently asked questions
Is open-design or zag more popular?
open-design has 98,924 GitHub stars and zag has 5,220. open-design has the larger community by that measure.
Are open-design and zag free?
Both are open source. open-design is licensed under Apache-2.0 and zag under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between open-design and zag?
open-design is written in TypeScript and zag 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 zag?
Choose open-design if you want the larger community (98,924 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose zag if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.