head to head · open source
storybook vs zeal
storybook has 91,428 GitHub stars, 10,495 forks, 1,831 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zeal has 12,865 stars, 852 forks, 107 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. storybook leads on adoption by 611% (91,428 vs 12,865 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 | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 852 |
| 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
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 zeal
Zeal Zeal is an offline documentation browser: your personal reference library, searchable in an instant and available without a connection. Originally inspired by Dash, it supports the same docset format. Download Binary builds for Windows and other installation options are available on the download page. Windows builds require Windows 10 version 1809 or later. How to use After installing Zeal, go to File → Docset Library , select the docsets you want, and click the Download button. Query and filter docsets Limit the search scope by prefixing your query with a docset name and a colon: cpp:vector To search…
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Frequently asked questions
Is storybook or zeal more popular?
storybook has 91,428 GitHub stars and zeal has 12,865. 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 (91,428 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zeal if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.