head to head · open source
rea vs buildwithclaude
rea has 431,575 GitHub stars, 107,264 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. buildwithclaude has 3,724 stars, 691 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. rea leads on adoption by 11,489% (431,575 vs 3,724 stars). rea is written in TypeScript under MIT; buildwithclaude is written in Python under MIT. rea has attracted 25% as many forks as stars, buildwithclaude 19%. rea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (claude-code, mcp), 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
| rea | buildwithclaude | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 432K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 107K | ⑂ 691 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rea if
- You weight community size — 432K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick buildwithclaude if
- You want the buildwithclaude feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and buildwithclaude fits your workflow better
About rea
English · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Türkçe · Русский · Tiếng Việt · ไทย · Deutsch · Español · Français · Українська · Polski · Português (Brasil) · العربية · فارسی REA: Reverse Engineer Anything One MCP for reverse engineering across binaries, applications, and runtime behavior. See a feature you like. Understand how it works, down to the binary level. Website · Guides · Showcases Quick start · How REA works · What you can analyze · Showcases · FAQ · Documentation npx rea agents setup Join the Reverse Engineering Community Discord · Q&A · Show and Tell See a feature in an app that you want in your own product?…
About buildwithclaude
Build with Claude Claude Skills, Agents, Commands, Hooks, Plugins, Marketplaces collections for and extend Claude Code A plugin marketplace and discovery platform for Claude Code. Browse curated plugins, discover community contributions, and extend your Claude Code workflows. Quick Start What's Included Build with Claude Plugins Curated collections maintained in this repository: Community Discovery The platform indexes plugins from the broader Claude Code ecosystem: 20k+ Community Plugins from external marketplaces 4,500+ MCP Servers for database, API, and tool connections 1,100+ Plugin Marketplaces from the…
read the full buildwithclaude overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rea or buildwithclaude more popular?
rea has 431,575 GitHub stars and buildwithclaude has 3,724. rea has the larger community by that measure.
Are rea and buildwithclaude free?
Both are open source. rea is licensed under MIT and buildwithclaude under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rea and buildwithclaude?
rea is written in TypeScript and buildwithclaude in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, rea or buildwithclaude?
Choose rea if you want the larger community (431,575 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose buildwithclaude if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.