After Primeng 21 - what now? MIT, true open source, sovereignty

[PascaleBeier]

Happy to gather same suggestions:

Problem: We use PrimeNG as UI component library, however they moved away from open-source

• https://primeui.dev/nextchapter

Goals:

• As best a11y as we can possibly get
• no vendor lock-in
• sensitive governance

Options:

• monitor https://github.com/openng-org/open-prime
• handroll our own UI components
• use https://github.com/spartan-ng/spartan
• use angular ARIA https://angular.dev/guide/aria/overview#when-to-use-angular-aria
• use angular CDK https://material.angular.dev/guide/theming

[fsystemweb]

Happy to share some thoughts.

This is definitely something worth taking some time to think about because the migration cost could be significant.

I never used Open Prime, so I'm not sure how reliable the community is. That said, since it's based on PrimeNG, the transition would probably require much less work.

On the other hand, I would recommend sticking with Angular Material. I don't think it's going to disappear, and it should remain open source. The downside is that the migration will probably be more difficult.

One advantage is that AI coding tools will likely adapt better to Angular Material because it's the official Angular UI library. I also heard that Angular is moving to one major release per year, in sync with Angular Material. If that's true, it could be good news if you decide to migrate to Angular Material, since keeping everything up to date should become easier.

[PascaleBeier]

Thanks! Theming with angular material is quite involved to where I wanna end up from my first testing though.

[adamantmm]

For a self-hosted privacy product I would not pick another large kit whose vendor can flip the license again. Lowest-risk long term is Angular CDK plus a small set of primitives you own (dialog, menu, table) — more work, but the governance stays yours.

open-prime is the cheap migration if it actually stays a community fork; I'd wait for a few months of commit history and an explicit license guarantee before betting the UI on it. Spartan is nicer DX (shadcn-shaped) but it's still someone else's design system to absorb. Material is stable and MIT, and the migration cost from PrimeNG is the painful part either way.

[PascaleBeier]

Hey @adamantmm - yes, I absolutely agree with you here.

Currently, we do use OpenUI v2, but long term, I'd really love to migrate to Angular CDK.