head to head · open source
storybook vs liam
storybook has 91,089 GitHub stars, 10,452 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped today. liam has 5,116 stars, 239 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. storybook leads on adoption by 1,680% (91,089 vs 5,116 stars). storybook is written in TypeScript under MIT; liam is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. storybook has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, liam 5%. storybook was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (documentation), 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
| storybook | liam | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 239 |
| 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 liam if
- You want the liam 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 liam 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 liam
Liam is an open source TypeScript tool that automatically generates beautiful, interactive ER diagrams from an existing database schema, built for developers and teams who need to read, document, and share the structure of a database without drawing diagrams by hand.
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Frequently asked questions
Is storybook or liam more popular?
storybook has 91,089 GitHub stars and liam has 5,116. storybook has the larger community by that measure.
Are storybook and liam free?
Both are open source. storybook is licensed under MIT and liam under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between storybook and liam?
storybook is written in TypeScript and liam 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 liam?
Choose storybook if you want the larger community (91,089 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose liam if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.