Free DHTMLX Alternatives: Hidden Costs of Open Source

Why pay when you can get it much cheaper or even for free? You can often find such an opinion in numerous articles and heated discussions within dev communities dedicated to choosing between open-source and commercial tools for building web apps. Indeed, certain frontend needs can be successfully covered with open source UI components.

But there is certainly another side to this choice. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to remain competitive with free frontend libraries for more than a decade. DHTMLX provides feature-rich JavaScript UI components designed to speed up the implementation of various functionalities, from basic UI controls (toolbar, color picker, etc.) to advanced tools for data analysis, visualizations, or project management. Can you expect something like that from any open-source library? Let’s find out.

In this article, we’ll consider why open-source tools can be attractive to dev teams, free alternatives to DHTMLX, and the hidden costs of using open source UI libraries for web development.

Why Open Source UI Components Become Appealing to Dev Teams

The advent of new web technologies, competitive struggles, and growing end-user demands undoubtedly affect web development trends. These factors often increase the complexity and, therefore, the cost of delivering a modern web application. And if you add to this the unstable global economic situation, it becomes clear why many dev teams try to reduce their expenses by using open source JavaScript frameworks for enterprise. This is particularly true for budget-tight startups and SMBs.

Compared to commercial JavaScript UI libraries, open-source tools seem more appealing because they typically cost much less or nothing at all. At the same time, it should be clearly understood that “open source” doesn’t equal free. While many open source libraries can be used at no cost, some may have licensing restrictions or require extra fees. This distinction is often overlooked by less experienced teams. We’ll get back to this matter in one of the following sections.

It is also worth noting that open source is a real driving force of innovation and progress in web development. The latest GitHub Octoverse survey says the number of first-time contributors to open source projects is constantly growing. Only last year, approximately 1.4 million new developers joined open source, and the overall number of contributions to open source and public repositories on GitHub reached the mark of 1 billion.

Source: Octoverse 2024

These contributions range from well-known projects (e.g. home-assistant/core) to booming generative AI projects like ollama/ollama (a 59% increase in contributions to AI projects compared to 2023).

It can be said that many open source efforts are focused on web development since JavaScript is the leading programming language for code pushes on GitHub, and more developers (15% increase in 2024) are downloading and using open source JavaScript libraries from npm.

Apart from reasonable expectations of cost reductions, open source UI components offer some other significant benefits. First of all, we have to point out the vital role of the community in collective problem-solving, transparency, and continuous improvement of open source projects. Developers have the freedom to enrich any open source tool with missing features or fix issues independently. So it is not surprising that the respondents of the Developer Survey 2025 name GitHub the most admired community platform, and developers without prior experience with GitHub want to work with GitHub public repos in the coming year.

Taking into account all these benefits of open source tools, it is clear why developers may consider the possibility of looking for DHTMLX alternatives on GitHub or other open source platforms. Let us specifically review some open source project management tools that may be seen as viable options for replacing DHTMLX in a web project.

Popular Free DHTMLX Alternatives for Project Management

DHTMLX is recognized for JavaScript UI components designed for accelerated integration of advanced functionalities such as Gantt charts, scheduling calendars, Kanban boards, and to do lists in project management apps.

DHTMLX Gantt

DHTMLX Gantt stands out in our product line as a top solution for managing workflows of any complexity with maximum efficiency and convenience. Our component provides a rich API with a wide range of configuration and customization options for building a JavaScript Gantt chart that fully complies with any project requirements. The high performance of our Gantt allows convenient management of data-intensive projects with thousands of interdependent tasks. But most of all, our Gantt is valued by development teams for the availability of multiple advanced features such as resource management, critical path, auto scheduling, export to various formats (PDF, Excel, MS Project), and more!

Are there any open source project management tools like that? Let’s find out by reviewing a couple of curious options.

Frappe Gantt

It is probably the most well-known open source Gantt chart solution on the web. This lightweight, dependency-free Gantt library is suitable for integrating a basic Gantt chart in small apps or prototypes. Frappe Gantt provides drag-and-drop interactivity, task dependencies, flexible timelines, configurable popups, weekend/holiday marks, and multi-lingual support. It also relies on HTML5 and SVG rendering, ensuring crisp visuals and basic customizations with CSS. Frappe Gantt originated from the need to add a Gantt view to ERPNext, a 100% open-source enterprise resource planning solution developed by the Frappe team. Interestingly, the GitHub page of the project states that DHTMLX Gantt served as an inspiration for the initial product design.

jsGanttImproved

Built upon the original jsGantt project, this free frontend library extends the capabilities of its predecessor with extra features and bug fixes. It seems like a workable solution for delivering a classic Gantt experience with basic task scheduling and dependency visualization. Here you can find essential Gantt features such as task dependencies, progress tracking, milestones, resources, and task styling. On top of that, this Gantt library supports dynamic loading of tasks, dynamic change of time format, data import/export in XML, and internationalization. jsGanttImproved also comes with wrappers for integrating the Gantt library into projects based on popular JS frameworks (React, Angular, Vue, .NET).

Twproject Gantt

Originally part of the Twproject solution for project management, this free online jQuery-based Gantt editor can be used for handling projects with more than just basic needs. Most of the standard Gantt capabilities, like drag-and-drop support, dependencies, task editing, milestones, and undo/redo operations, are in place. It also allows solving more challenging tasks such as resource and workload management, critical path prioritization, and exporting/ printing of project data. This Gantt is a functional, standalone editor that can be used in web browsers. At the same time, it belongs to the Twproject ecosystem, making it more complicated to embed this open source Gantt chart into a custom app.

For clarity, let us review the tools described above in a tabular format:

Summarizing the UI component library comparison above, it is obvious that the reviewed open source tools can be considered as alternatives to DHTMLX only in very limited scenarios (demos, prototypes, or small apps). For enterprise-level apps, where dev teams rely on JavaScript components to solve many challenging tasks, DHTMLX remains a more preferable option.

Chances are, you will see a similar picture when considering open source alternatives for other DHTMLX components. For instance, you may try to find the best free DHTMLX alternatives for scheduling, but our JavaScript scheduler library is likely to be a preferable option. However, the open source ecosystem is growing fast, and many promising tools emerge every day. As for Gantt charts, we can also mention a couple of other free tools. Google Gantt, available as a part of the Google Charts suite, provides an intuitive way to render Gantt charts in browsers. Also, take a look at Mermaid Gantt, which is used for generating basic Gantt charts with Markdown-like syntax, making such visualizations suitable for documentation and high-level project outlines.

Hidden Costs of Open Source UI Components

Now, we want to delve deeper and highlight why free UI tools may cost you more than commercial ones in a long run:

• Less expensive but more time-consuming

At first, open source development tools may be a preferable option in terms of financial costs. However, as it is said, time is money, and this is especially true in the context of web development. Extra resources required for properly testing, securing, customizing, and integrating are frequently ignored at the preparation stage. As a result, the development lifecycle becomes more complex, extending time-to-market and driving up costs.

• Licensing peculiarities

Another popular misconception about open source UI components is that they come under licenses that do not impose any restrictions. However, you may also face licensing issues with open source. There are some licenses called permissive, such as MIT, Apache, and BSD, and they impose minimal restrictions on how given tools are used, modified, and distributed. At the same time, open source products may also be distributed under copyleft licenses (GPL, LGPL, MPL) that aim to preserve the open source nature of the software. It means that when such a tool is modified and distributed as a part of a web project, it should be licensed under the same terms, i.e., it must be open and available to others without charging a licensing fee. Otherwise, it is very likely to face legal risks of non-compliant usage in closed-source apps.

• Support and maintenance

When it comes to supporting and maintaining open source tools, it is natural to expect community assistance in these aspects, and it may work to some extent. But it usually doesn’t work as timely and accurately as needed, especially in enterprise-grade applications. With open source tools, you don’t have any guarantees that a specific bug will be quickly fixed or a new update will be rolled out without delays. It is a common practice for maintainers of open source projects to sell tech support and maintenance services as add-ons. It can also not be ruled out that at some point, such products may slow down or even stop growing if maintainers lose interest or funding.

• Scalability & Performance

DHTMLX components are mainly used for delivering enterprise apps that often have specific needs. When looking for a worthy DHTMLX open source alternative, it is necessary to make sure that the considered open source tools are enterprise-ready in such vital criteria as performance and scalability. This may turn out to be disappointing since many open source tools struggle to meet enterprise-level demands like processing large datasets, handling increasing workloads, and integrating with complex backend systems.

• Security concerns

And last but not least, we have to mention possible security risks in open source UI components. The code of such tools is publicly available, increasing the chances that security issues will be detected and fixed by the community. But not every open source product has an active and dedicated community. Apart from that, this kind of transparency can also be used by attackers to insert malicious code into the package. All in all, open source tools turn out to be less predictable in terms of security than commercial ones.

As you can see from the previous two sections, open source JavaScript components can hardly be called full-fledged, free DHTMLX alternatives in many respects, from documentation coverage and tech support to functional capabilities. Also, commercial libraries like DHTMLX often turn out to be a worthwhile investment that pays back with time.

Why DHTMLX JavaScript UI Libraries are a Smart Long-Term Investment

Our long-standing experience in the industry says that dev teams that opt for commercial UI components instead of open source tools or custom development usually do not regret this decision. The choice in favor of commercial JavaScript UI libraries makes the development process and associated expenses much more predictable. Thus, developers can focus on the main aspects of a web project, like its logic, without worrying about the longevity, stability, and maintenance of the UI components being used.

The recent GoodFirms survey says that developing a complex app with popular consumer features costs from $34,560 to $60,480 and takes 8 to 14 weeks. Numerous factors are taken into account when determining the cost of app development:

Source: GoodFirms survey titled “How Much Does It Cost to Develop an App?“

Using commercial JavaScript UI components can facilitate some of the aspects mentioned above, reducing their financial and time costs.

Our feature-packed JavaScript UI components are built to scale on demand, providing both business growth opportunities and long-term ROI (return on investment).

Conclusion

Summing up, we can say that despite the undeniable advantages of open source UI components, they pose a lot of potential risks and uncertainties, especially when used for implementing core functionalities in enterprise-grade projects. That is why we encourage developers who are in search of DHTMLX alternatives to carefully assess the TCO (total cost of ownership) of open source DHTMLX competitors, not just their licensing cost. If the brand name doesn’t matter and our product line includes a tool that seems like the right one for your project, just give it a try by downloading a free 30-day trial version of the required product, and you won’t regret it.