Ant Design Pro vs refine
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
A React starter template with admin-style pages built on Ant Design.
Open source · MIT
A React framework for building admin panels, dashboards and internal business apps.
The short answer
Choose Ant Design Pro if you need…
- Developers building internal admin dashboards or back-office tools in React
- Teams who want to start from Ant Design components and page templates
- Developers who want a mock data setup for building screens before a backend exists
- Teams that want a starting point with built-in tests and a lint workflow
Choose refine if you need…
- Developers building internal admin panels or back-office tools in React
- Teams that want a headless approach and can pick their own UI component library
- Projects that connect to REST, GraphQL or similar backend APIs and need standard CRUD screens
- Developers already comfortable with React and TypeScript
Side-by-side
| Ant Design Pro | refine | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Framework | Framework |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 38.9k | 36k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Intermediate |
| How you get it | Clone and build from source | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last code update | 8 days ago | 57 days ago |
What each one is
Ant Design Pro
Ant Design Pro is a starter project for building enterprise web applications in React and TypeScript. It comes with ready-made page templates such as dashboards, forms, lists, profiles, and login screens, built on the Ant Design component library. Developers use it as a starting point so they do not have to set up the layout, routing, and common pages from scratch.
refine
Refine is a TypeScript framework built on React for making internal tools, admin panels, dashboards and B2B applications. The description says it aims for flexibility, and it is headless, meaning it supplies the logic and data handling while you choose the look of the interface. Developers use it to avoid rebuilding common pieces like data fetching, tables and forms for every new back-office app.
Best for
Ant Design Pro
- Developers building internal admin dashboards or back-office tools in React
- Teams who want to start from Ant Design components and page templates
- Developers who want a mock data setup for building screens before a backend exists
- Teams that want a starting point with built-in tests and a lint workflow
refine
- Developers building internal admin panels or back-office tools in React
- Teams that want a headless approach and can pick their own UI component library
- Projects that connect to REST, GraphQL or similar backend APIs and need standard CRUD screens
- Developers already comfortable with React and TypeScript
Strengths
Ant Design Pro
- Ships with many common enterprise page templates, so the starting layout is largely done
- Built on Ant Design and Umi Max, with TypeScript throughout
- Includes mock development, i18n, and unit and e2e test setup as described in the README
refine
- Headless design lets you combine it with the UI library you already use
- Open source under the MIT license with a large community (about 36,000 stars at the time of metadata)
- Written in TypeScript, which helps catch errors while you build
Not ideal for
Ant Design Pro
- People who are not comfortable with React, TypeScript, or the command line, since setup and customization assume developer skills
- Projects that do not use Ant Design or React, because the template is built around both
- Teams that need very small static sites, since the template ships with a large set of pages and dependencies
refine
- Non-developers who want a no-code app builder, since it requires writing React and TypeScript code
- Simple static websites or small single-page apps that do not need admin-style data screens
Trade-offs
Ant Design Pro
- The README is short on detail for each template, so you will need to read the code and docs to learn how pieces fit together
- The simple-version command deletes files permanently and cannot be undone
- Targets modern browsers only, as listed in the README
refine
- Requires React and TypeScript knowledge, so it is not suited to beginners without that background
- The README excerpt provided is truncated, so details on specific integrations and limits could not be fully verified here
Getting started
Ant Design Pro
Clone the repository
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/ant-design/ant-design-pro.git myappEnter the project folder
cd myapprefine
Create a new project with the Refine CLI
npm create refine-app@latestFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between Ant Design Pro and refine?
Ant Design Pro: A React starter template with admin-style pages built on Ant Design. refine: A React framework for building admin panels, dashboards and internal business apps. Ant Design Pro suits developers building internal admin dashboards or back-office tools in react, while refine suits developers building internal admin panels or back-office tools in react.
Are Ant Design Pro and refine free?
Ant Design Pro: Free and open source. refine: Free and open source.
Is Ant Design Pro or refine more popular?
Ant Design Pro has more GitHub stars (38.9k) than refine (36k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to Ant Design Pro and refine?
Other options people compare them with include react-admin, Tabler, go-admin, ngx-admin, umi.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.