head to head · open source
storybook vs fern
storybook has 91,428 GitHub stars, 10,495 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. fern has 3,830 stars, 372 forks, 343 open issues and last shipped yesterday. storybook leads on adoption by 2,287% (91,428 vs 3,830 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 10%. 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 | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 372 |
| 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
Build bulletproof UI components faster Storybook is a frontend workshop for building UI components and pages in isolation. Thousands of teams use it for UI development, testing, and documentation. Find out more at storybook.js.org ! View README for: Table of contents 🚀 Getting Started 📒 Projects 🛠 Supported Frameworks & Examples 🔗Addons 🏅 Badges & Presentation materials 👥 Community 👏 Contributing 👨💻 Development scripts 💸 Sponsors 💵 Backers :memo: License Getting Started Visit Storybook's website to learn more about Storybook and to get started. Documentation Documentation can be found on Storybook's…
read the full storybook overview →
About fern
🌿 What is Fern? Fern is a platform that transforms your API definitions into production ready SDKs and beautiful documentation in minutes. With Fern, you can offer your users: 🧩 Type safe SDKs in multiple languages, including TypeScript, Python, Java, Go, Ruby, PHP, and C 📘 Developer documentation featuring an interactive UI and auto generated API + SDK references ✨ AI Search powered by an assistant trained on your docs, APIs, and SDKs that can instantly answer a developer's questions Fern supports leading API specifications including OpenAPI (REST, Webhooks), AsyncAPI (WebSockets), Protobuf (gRPC), and…
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Frequently asked questions
Is storybook or fern more popular?
storybook has 91,428 GitHub stars and fern has 3,830. 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 (91,428 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose fern if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.