head to head · open source
caveman vs prettier
caveman has 116,900 GitHub stars, 6,789 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped yesterday. prettier has 52,405 stars, 5,023 forks, 1,462 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caveman leads on adoption by 123% (116,900 vs 52,405 stars). caveman is written in Go under Apache-2.0; prettier is written in JavaScript under MIT. caveman has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, prettier 10%. prettier 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
| caveman | prettier | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 117K | ★ 52K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 5.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caveman if
- You weight community size — 117K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick prettier if
- You want the prettier feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and prettier fits your workflow better
About caveman
why use many token when few do trick Your AI coding agent bills by the word and writes like it knows that. Caveman make it stop. ▶️ ThePrimeagen reacts: "No way this actually works" 🏆 1 on GitHub Trending · July 2026 · 🥇 1 Repository of the Day on Trendshift · April 2026 1 on Hacker News · 904 points · 366 comments · 8 Product of the Day on Product Hunt 📄 Cited in CAVEWOMAN , an Adobe Research paper that measured caveman style output cutting cost 1.4 to 2.4×, up to 3× · 🧪 Tested by JetBrains on 86 real coding tasks: "costs you nothing measurable in quality" ⚡ One command, no account, no API key. npx skills…
read the full caveman overview →
About prettier
Opinionated Code Formatter JavaScript · TypeScript · Flow · JSX · JSON CSS · SCSS · Less HTML · Vue · Angular GraphQL · Markdown · YAML Your favorite language? Intro Prettier is an opinionated code formatter. It enforces a consistent style by parsing your code and re printing it with its own rules that take the maximum line length into account, wrapping code when necessary. Input Output Prettier can be run in your editor on save, in a pre commit hook, or in CI environments to ensure your codebase has a consistent style without devs ever having to post a nit picky comment on a code review ever again!…
read the full prettier overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caveman or prettier more popular?
caveman has 116,900 GitHub stars and prettier has 52,405. caveman has the larger community by that measure.
Are caveman and prettier free?
Both are open source. caveman is licensed under Apache-2.0 and prettier under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caveman and prettier?
caveman is written in Go and prettier in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, caveman or prettier?
Choose caveman if you want the larger community (116,900 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose prettier if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.