---
title: Appetite UI vs gluestack UI
description: Use gluestack UI if you build in React Native or Expo and want coded components. Use Appetite UI if the design system starts in Figma, for iOS and Android.
updated: 2026-10-14
source: https://www.appetiteui.com/compare/gluestack-ui
---

# Appetite UI vs gluestack UI

Use gluestack UI if you build in React Native or Expo and want coded components. Use Appetite UI if the design system starts in Figma, for iOS and Android.

Checked on October 14, 2026 against each kit's own page.

| Row | Appetite UI | gluestack UI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | A Figma UI kit for iOS and Android, built like a design system. | "React & React Native UI components library for Web & Mobile App", "copy-paste components for web (Next.js) and mobile (Expo / React Native)". |
| Built for | iOS and Android apps, drawn at phone widths. | Web and mobile from one codebase: "All gluestack-ui components are universal out of the box", with ios: and android: style modifiers. |
| The Figma file | Apple and Material components in one file, with 15 Apple system colors and 32 Material 3 roles, each pointing at a token you control. | A Figma Community file, "gluestack-ui v2.0 Design Kit", with semantic colors as variable collections and light and dark modes. Licensed under CC BY 4.0; it follows the v2 config while the library is at v5. |
| Light and dark | Light and Dark modes on one semantic token set, so a screen switches with the system. | A light and a dark set of semantic tokens that "automatically adapt when the mode changes"; the provider takes system, light or dark. |
| Tokens | One edit. Both platforms and both modes follow it. | "a semantic color token system inspired by shadcn/ui", defined in code (config.ts), not exported from a Figma file. |
| What developers get | Token values exported to SwiftUI, Jetpack Compose, Flutter and CSS, in the file you buy. Your developers keep their own components. | Coded React and React Native components you copy into the project, styled with Tailwind CSS through NativeWind. |
| License | Paid once, with lifetime updates. The plans are on the pricing page. | The code is MIT, in its README's words "Licensed under the MIT License". gluestack-ui pro is a paid product of screens. |

Use gluestack UI if you build in React Native or Expo and want coded components to copy into the project. Use Appetite UI if the design system starts in Figma, for iOS and Android.

## Sources

- [gluestack.io](https://gluestack.io/), read October 14, 2026