realworld-apps/realworld

"The mother of all demo apps" — exemplary full-stack Medium.com clone implemented across many frontend + backend stacks. The canonical "compare stacks" reference.

What it is

A specification + reference implementations for a Medium-style blogging app, implemented in many frontend (React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, Solid, vanilla JS, etc.) and backend (Node/Express, Django, Rails, Spring, Phoenix, Go, Rust, etc.) stacks. Lets engineers compare how the same app is built in different stacks — "show me how this stack actually handles auth + CRUD + routing + state".

Key features

A shared API spec all backends implement.
A shared UI spec / wireframe all frontends implement.
Mix-and-match — any frontend works with any compliant backend.
100+ implementations across mainstream + niche stacks.

Tech stack

TypeScript at the language tag (companion site).
Per-implementation languages vary; the spec is language-agnostic.

When to reach for it

You're evaluating a new stack and want to see a non-trivial real-app example.
You're a tutorial writer building stack-comparison content.
You're a student learning a new framework with a real project.

When not to reach for it

You want a production-grade reference architecture — RealWorld optimizes for learning, not scale.

Maturity signal

84k stars, 8k forks, last push recent. Open issues = 35 — tight curation. License NOASSERTION; per-implementation licenses vary.

Alternatives

Build-your-own-x lists — for from-scratch implementations.
Per-framework official docs / examples.

Wiki: realworld-apps/realworld