SHSelfHostIndex

OpenUI vs screenshot-to-code

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
OP OpenUI Describe UI with text and see it rendered live VS SC screenshot-to-code Convert screenshots and designs into working code
FeatureOpenUIscreenshot-to-code
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score96 · Excellent100 · Excellent
CategorySelf-Hosted AISelf-Hosted AI
LicenseApache-2.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptPython
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM1,024 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 22,568★ 79,624
First released20242023
ReplacesVercel v0Vercel v0

What are OpenUI and screenshot-to-code?

OpenUI

OpenUI is a tool that lets you describe a user interface in natural language and watch an LLM render it in real time. Generated components can be converted to React or other frameworks for rapid prototyping.

  • Text-to-UI generation
  • Live preview
  • Export to frameworks
  • Works with local models

Read the full OpenUI guide →

screenshot-to-code

screenshot-to-code uses AI vision models to turn screenshots, mockups, and Figma designs into clean front-end code. It supports several stacks and can iterate on the result through chat.

  • Screenshot to HTML and React
  • Multiple framework outputs
  • Iterative refinement
  • Vision model powered

Read the full screenshot-to-code guide →

OpenUI vs screenshot-to-code: key differences

OpenUI is written in TypeScript, while screenshot-to-code is built with Python. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for OpenUI versus MIT for screenshot-to-code. Screenshot-to-code has the considerably larger community, at 79,624 GitHub stars versus 22,568.

Why pick each one

Choose OpenUI if…

  • Instant live preview
  • Converts to React
  • Multiple LLM backends

Watch out for

  • Prototype-level output
  • Requires model API access
OpenUI details

Choose screenshot-to-code if…

  • Multiple framework outputs
  • Iterative chat refinement
  • Simple to run

Watch out for

  • Paid API keys required
  • Output needs manual cleanup
screenshot-to-code details

Frequently asked questions

Is OpenUI or screenshot-to-code better?

Neither is universally better. screenshot-to-code has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are OpenUI and screenshot-to-code free and open-source?

Yes. OpenUI is licensed under Apache-2.0 and screenshot-to-code under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run OpenUI and screenshot-to-code with Docker?

OpenUI: yes. screenshot-to-code: yes.