head to head · open source
storybook vs fern
storybook has 91,081 GitHub stars, 10,452 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fern has 3,782 stars, 345 forks, 343 open issues and last shipped yesterday. storybook leads on adoption by 2,308% (91,081 vs 3,782 stars). storybook is written in TypeScript under MIT; fern is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. storybook has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, fern 9%. fern 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.
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Side by side
| storybook | fern | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 345 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick storybook if
- You weight community size — 91K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick fern if
- You want the fern 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 fern fits your workflow better
About storybook
Storybook is an open source, MIT licensed frontend workshop, written in TypeScript, for building, documenting, and testing UI components and pages in isolation, aimed at frontend engineers and design system teams working in React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, React Native, HTML, and other supported renderers.
read the full storybook overview →
About fern
Fern is an Apache 2.0 TypeScript project in the API documentation and SDK generation ecosystem. It takes API definitions as input and produces client SDKs and developer documentation. The project centers on the fern api CLI, published on npm, and supports OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, Protobuf, and OpenRPC.
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Frequently asked questions
Is storybook or fern more popular?
storybook has 91,081 GitHub stars and fern has 3,782. storybook has the larger community by that measure.
Are storybook and fern free?
Both are open source. storybook is licensed under MIT and fern under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between storybook and fern?
storybook is written in TypeScript and fern 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, storybook or fern?
Choose storybook if you want the larger community (91,081 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose fern if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.