head to head · open source
univer vs blocksuite
univer has 14,417 GitHub stars, 1,303 forks, 151 open issues and last shipped yesterday. blocksuite has 6,017 stars, 563 forks, 196 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. univer leads on adoption by 140% (14,417 vs 6,017 stars). univer is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; blocksuite is written in TypeScript under MPL-2.0. univer has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, blocksuite 9%. univer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), 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
| univer | blocksuite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 563 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick univer if
- You weight community size — 14K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick blocksuite if
- You want the blocksuite feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and blocksuite fits your workflow better
About univer
Univer is an open source, full stack office SDK for building spreadsheet, document and presentation interfaces inside your own product. Rather than shipping an end user office suite, it gives developers the primitives — a Canvas based renderer, a formula engine, a plugin architecture and a single Facade API — to embed spreadsheet and document editing into a web application or run the same logic headlessly on Node.js.
read the full univer overview →
About blocksuite
BlockSuite is an MPL 2.0 licensed TypeScript toolkit for building block based editors and collaborative applications, intended for developers who need to embed, extend, or compose rich content editing rather than adopt a finished product.
read the full blocksuite overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is univer or blocksuite more popular?
univer has 14,417 GitHub stars and blocksuite has 6,017. univer has the larger community by that measure.
Are univer and blocksuite free?
Both are open source. univer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and blocksuite under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between univer and blocksuite?
univer is written in TypeScript and blocksuite 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, univer or blocksuite?
Choose univer if you want the larger community (14,417 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose blocksuite if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.