head to head · open source
primitives vs webgradients
primitives has 19,479 GitHub stars, 1,306 forks, 356 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. webgradients has 2,496 stars, 145 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. primitives leads on adoption by 680% (19,479 vs 2,496 stars). primitives is written in TypeScript under MIT; webgradients is written in CSS under MIT. primitives has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, webgradients 6%. primitives was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (colors), 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
| primitives | webgradients | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | CSS |
| Last push | 2026-10-14 | 2026-08-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 145 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick primitives if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick webgradients if
- You want the webgradients feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches CSS
- You evaluated both and webgradients fits your workflow better
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…
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About webgradients
WebGradients If you like WebGradients, consider supporting the project — it helps keep the tools free, fast, and ad free. A curated collection of 180 splendid gradients made in CSS3 , .sketch , .PSD and Figma formats — free for personal and commercial use. View all the gradients here » Made by Dima Braven · itmeo Machine readable data All 180 gradients are also available as structured JSON — useful for design tools, generators, or feeding gradient data to an LLM/agent: gradients.json — full dataset with per stop color positions gradients parsed.json — flattened variant with zero padded index deg is the CSS…
read the full webgradients overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is primitives or webgradients more popular?
primitives has 19,479 GitHub stars and webgradients has 2,496. primitives has the larger community by that measure.
Are primitives and webgradients free?
Both are open source. primitives is licensed under MIT and webgradients under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between primitives and webgradients?
primitives is written in TypeScript and webgradients in CSS. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, primitives or webgradients?
Choose primitives if you want the larger community (19,479 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose webgradients if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.