Storybook is a free, open-source tool for building and testing UI components in isolation. See its features, framework support, and FAQs.
Storybook is an open-source development tool that lets frontend engineers build and test UI components in isolation, outside the context of a full running application. It started as React Storybook, first released in April 2016 by Kadira, a Sri Lankan startup previously known for its contributions to the Meteor ecosystem.
After Kadira closed at the end of 2016, Storybook development stalled until the open-source community took over maintenance in 2017. Today the project is maintained largely by the team behind Chromatic, a visual testing platform built by former Storybook maintainers, though Storybook itself remains fully open source and free.
Storybook lets developers write stories, which are declarative descriptions of a component's different states and variations, and render them inside an isolated iframe so styling and behavior can be reviewed without interference from application-level logic. Stories follow the open Component Story Format standard, making them reusable by external testing tools.
The tool supports interaction testing, accessibility checks, and visual testing add-ons, and maintains an interactive index of every component and its states for team reference. Framework support extends well beyond the web, covering React, Vue, Angular, and Svelte, as well as React Native, Android, iOS, and Flutter for mobile component development.
Storybook is completely free and open source, with no paid tier for the core tool itself. It is distributed on GitHub, where it has attracted more than 90,000 stars, and is used by hundreds of companies and thousands of individual developers. Optional, separately maintained products such as Chromatic offer paid visual testing and review services that integrate with Storybook, but Storybook's own component-development functionality carries no license cost.
Storybook is used to build, test, and document UI components in isolation from a full application, so developers can review each component's states independently.
Yes, Storybook is completely free and open source with no paid tier for its core functionality.
Storybook is maintained primarily by the team behind Chromatic, building on a project originally created by Kadira and later handed to the open-source community.
Storybook supports React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, and other web frameworks, as well as mobile frameworks including React Native, Android, iOS, and Flutter.
No. Storybook is a free, open-source component development tool, while Chromatic is a separate, paid visual testing and review product made by former Storybook maintainers that integrates with Storybook.
Yes, Storybook integrates with tools like Jest, Playwright, and Cypress for interaction, accessibility, and visual testing.
Storybook began as React Storybook, first released in April 2016 by the Kadira team.