head to head · open source
slate vs database-build
slate has 31,746 GitHub stars, 3,306 forks, 653 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. database-build has 2,950 stars, 272 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. slate leads on adoption by 976% (31,746 vs 2,950 stars). slate is written in TypeScript under MIT; database-build is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. slate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, database-build 9%. slate was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (browser), 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
| slate | database-build | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-06-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 272 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick slate if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick database-build if
- You want the database-build feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and database-build fits your workflow better
About slate
A completely customizable framework for building rich text editors. Why? · Principles · Demo · Examples · Documentation · Contributing! Slate lets you build rich, intuitive editors like those in Medium, Dropbox Paper or Google Docs—which are becoming table stakes for applications on the web—without your codebase getting mired in complexity. It can do this because all of its logic is implemented with a series of plugins, so you aren't ever constrained by what is or isn't in "core". You can think of it like a pluggable implementation of contenteditable built on top of React. It was inspired by libraries like…
read the full slate overview →
About database-build
database.build (formerly postgres.new) In browser Postgres sandbox with AI assistance. With database.build, you can instantly spin up an unlimited number of Postgres databases that run directly in your browser (and soon, deploy them to S3). Each database is paired with a large language model (LLM) which opens the door to some interesting use cases: Drag and drop CSV import (generate table on the fly) Generate and export reports Generate charts Build database diagrams How it works All queries in database.build run directly in your browser. There’s no remote Postgres container or WebSocket proxy. How is this…
read the full database-build overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is slate or database-build more popular?
slate has 31,746 GitHub stars and database-build has 2,950. slate has the larger community by that measure.
Are slate and database-build free?
Both are open source. slate is licensed under MIT and database-build under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between slate and database-build?
slate is written in TypeScript and database-build 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, slate or database-build?
Choose slate if you want the larger community (31,746 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose database-build if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.