head to head · open source
slate vs emacs-application-framework
slate has 31,746 GitHub stars, 3,306 forks, 653 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. emacs-application-framework has 3,497 stars, 247 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. slate leads on adoption by 808% (31,746 vs 3,497 stars). slate is written in TypeScript under MIT; emacs-application-framework is written in Python under GPL-3.0. slate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, emacs-application-framework 7%. 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 | emacs-application-framework | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 3.5K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-08-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 247 |
| 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 emacs-application-framework if
- You want the emacs-application-framework feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and emacs-application-framework 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 emacs-application-framework
English 简体中文 A free/libre and open source extensible framework that revolutionizes the graphical capabilities of Emacs. The key to ultimately Live in Emacs Vision Emacs, the extensible text editor , is more than 45 years old. It is older than virtually all operating systems people use today, almost as old as the first UNIX system. During the decades of development, the world's brightest hackers have contributed their intelligence and creativity. Together they've constructed the most comprehensive and richest ecosystem that you can find in any software to date. If you are a hacker who works with numerous…
read the full emacs-application-framework overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is slate or emacs-application-framework more popular?
slate has 31,746 GitHub stars and emacs-application-framework has 3,497. slate has the larger community by that measure.
Are slate and emacs-application-framework free?
Both are open source. slate is licensed under MIT and emacs-application-framework under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between slate and emacs-application-framework?
slate is written in TypeScript and emacs-application-framework 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, slate or emacs-application-framework?
Choose slate if you want the larger community (31,746 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose emacs-application-framework if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.