head to head · open source
react vs Orbital
react has 252,095 GitHub stars, 51,624 forks, 1,377 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Orbital has 361 stars, 14 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. react leads on adoption by 69,732% (252,095 vs 361 stars). react is written in JavaScript under MIT; Orbital is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. react has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, Orbital 4%. react 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| react | Orbital | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 252K | ★ 361 |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-06-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 52K | ⑂ 14 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick react if
- You weight community size — 252K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Orbital if
- You want the Orbital feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Orbital fits your workflow better
About react
React · React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. Declarative: React makes it painless to create interactive UIs. Design simple views for each state in your application, and React will efficiently update and render just the right components when your data changes. Declarative views make your code more predictable, simpler to understand, and easier to debug. Component Based: Build encapsulated components that manage their own state, then compose them to make complex UIs. Since component logic is written in JavaScript instead of templates, you can easily pass rich data through your app and…
read the full react overview →
About Orbital
Website • Docs • Blog Get in touch Orbital automates integration between your data sources. It's decentralized by nature there's no central mapping code defined. Instead, Orbital is powered by the API specs you're already building. Orbital creates integration on the fly, without engineers having to write glue code. Get started right now, by spinning up Orbital on your machine. Grab the docker compose.yml at Note that some of Orbital's test features leverage platform specific docker features. So, either visit the above in a browser and download the file (we'll work out the correct one to serve you), or... curl H…
read the full Orbital overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Frameworks & Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Frameworks & Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is react or Orbital more popular?
react has 252,095 GitHub stars and Orbital has 361. react has the larger community by that measure.
Are react and Orbital free?
Both are open source. react is licensed under MIT, and Orbital has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between react and Orbital?
react is written in JavaScript and Orbital 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, react or Orbital?
Choose react if you want the larger community (252,095 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Orbital if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.