Nuklear by Immediate-Mode-UI
A single-header ANSI C immediate mode cross-platform GUI library
About Nuklear
From the project's README at github.com/Immediate-Mode-UI/Nuklear. Lightly cleaned for readability; for the full source see the upstream repo.
This is a minimal-state, immediate-mode graphical user interface toolkit written in ANSI C and licensed under public domain. It was designed as a simple embeddable user interface for application and does not have any dependencies, a default render backend or OS window/input handling but instead provides a highly modular, library-based approach, with simple input state for input and draw commands describing primitive shapes as output. So instead of providing a layered library that tries to abstract over a number of platform and render backends, it focuses only on the actual UI. Features Immediate-mode graphical user interface toolkit Single-header library Written in C89 (ANSI C) Small codebase (~18kLOC) Focus on portability, efficiency and simplicity No dependencies (not even the standard library if not wanted) Fully skinnable and customizable Low memory footprint with total control of memory usage if needed / wanted UTF-8 support No global or hidden state Customizable library modules (you can compile and use only what you need) Optional font baker and vertex buffer output Documentation Building
This library is self-contained in one single header file and can be used either in header-only mode or in implementation mode. The header-only mode is u
Health score breakdown
6-dimension composite. See methodology for formula and weights.
Adoption signals
Real-world usage data, pulled from each registry. The bigger the numbers, the more battle-tested the project.
| Signal | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 11k | github.com/Immediate-Mode-UI/Nuklear |
| GitHub forks | 676 | github.com/Immediate-Mode-UI/Nuklear |
Release & maintenance
Is this project actively maintained, or about to die? Check the recency of last commit and last release.
| Project age | 6.4 years | since Nov 2019 |
| Last commit | 2 days ago | May 5, 2026 |
| Releases shipped | 2 | last: 2 days ago |
Self-hosting cost across providers
Detected requirements: 4GB RAM, 40GB disk minimum. Cheapest plan per provider that meets the requirement.
| Provider | Plan | Specs | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| hetzner | CAX11 | 2c · 4GB · 40GB | $4.13 USD | Deploy → |
| vultr | VC2 | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5 USD | Deploy → |
| linode | Nanode 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $5.12 USD | Deploy → |
| digitalocean | Basic Regular 1GB | 1c · 1GB · 25GB | $6 USD | Deploy → |
What people say on Hacker News
Ready to self-host Nuklear?
Spin up a hetzner CAX11 (4GB RAM, 40GB disk) for $4.13/mo and follow the project's official install docs.
Data last refreshed May 7, 2026.
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