Element vs ReadMe

Element (Founded by the creators of Matrix, we build digitally sovereign, secure and interoperable real-time communication solutions for large organisations.) and ReadMe (Interactive developer hubs that help users succeed with your APIs 🦉) both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Element (rank #189) holds a narrow lead over ReadMe (rank #257) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (50 vs 47). The gap of 3 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

On code quality (the state of repositories, tests, releases and polish), ReadMe is slightly ahead of Element. On education (docs, guides and learning material for developers), ReadMe is clearly ahead of Element. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), Element is slightly ahead of ReadMe. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Element is clearly ahead of ReadMe. On momentum (release cadence and how fast the ecosystem moves), Element is ahead of ReadMe.

Element carries 34,608 GitHub stars across 137 public repos, with 33 repositories active in the last 90 days and 97 external contributors on record. ReadMe shows 1,824 stars across 106 public repos, 26 active in the last 90 days and 21 external contributors. The star gap on its own does not decide the comparison, but Element's footprint is roughly 19.0x larger, which usually shows up in downstream signals like inbound issues and third party integrations.

Element is the stronger read for anyone weighting reach. ReadMe looks better where education is the deciding factor. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.