head to head · open source
storybook vs zeal
storybook has 91,081 GitHub stars, 10,452 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zeal has 12,796 stars, 844 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. storybook leads on adoption by 612% (91,081 vs 12,796 stars). storybook is written in TypeScript under MIT; zeal is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. storybook has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, zeal 7%. 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 | zeal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 91K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 844 |
| 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 zeal if
- You want the zeal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and zeal 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 zeal
Zeal is an offline documentation browser: a personal reference library of API and language documentation that is searchable in an instant and available without a connection, built in C++ on Qt and released under the GPL 3.0.
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Frequently asked questions
Is storybook or zeal more popular?
storybook has 91,081 GitHub stars and zeal has 12,796. storybook has the larger community by that measure.
Are storybook and zeal free?
Both are open source. storybook is licensed under MIT and zeal under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between storybook and zeal?
storybook is written in TypeScript and zeal in C++. 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 zeal?
Choose storybook if you want the larger community (91,081 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zeal if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.