head to head · open source
primitives vs webgradients
primitives has 19,315 GitHub stars, 1,248 forks, 356 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. webgradients has 2,478 stars, 140 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. primitives leads on adoption by 679% (19,315 vs 2,478 stars). primitives is written in TypeScript under MIT; webgradients is written in CSS under MIT. primitives has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, webgradients 6%. primitives was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (colors), 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
| primitives | webgradients | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | CSS |
| Last push | 2026-08-08 | 2026-08-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 140 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick primitives if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick webgradients if
- You want the webgradients feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches CSS
- You evaluated both and webgradients fits your workflow better
About primitives
Radix Primitives is an MIT licensed, TypeScript UI component library for React, maintained by WorkOS, that gives teams building design systems and web apps low level components focused on accessibility, customization and developer experience.
read the full primitives overview →
About webgradients
WebGradients is a curated, MIT licensed collection of 180 ready made gradients distributed as CSS3, Sketch, PSD and Figma assets alongside a machine readable JSON dataset, aimed at frontend developers, designers and AI agent builders who need polished background colour treatments without composing them from scratch.
read the full webgradients overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is primitives or webgradients more popular?
primitives has 19,315 GitHub stars and webgradients has 2,478. primitives has the larger community by that measure.
Are primitives and webgradients free?
Both are open source. primitives is licensed under MIT and webgradients under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between primitives and webgradients?
primitives is written in TypeScript and webgradients in CSS. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, primitives or webgradients?
Choose primitives if you want the larger community (19,315 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose webgradients if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.