A curated list of awesome header-only C++ libraries

Table of Contents

• Argument Parsers
• Audio
• Benchmarking
• Compression
• Concurrency
• Cryptography and Security
• Databases
• Data Formats
• Data Mining, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning
• Data Formatting and Presentation
• Data Querying
• Data Structures and Algorithms
• Debugging
• Event Handling Mechanisms
• File System
• Functional Programming
• Geometry, Graphics Processing, and Game Development
• GPU
• GUI
• HTTP and the Web
• Image Processing
• Language Bindings
• Logging
• Mathematics
• Memory Management
• Mocking
• Networking
• Optimization
• Parsing Expression Grammars
• Portability Definitions
• Reflection
• Regular Expression
• Robotics
• Serialization
• SIMD
• Standard/Support Libraries
• State Machine
• Statistics
• String Utilities
• Templating Engines
• Terminal Utilities
• Testing Frameworks
• Units
• Web Frameworks

Argument Parsers

Library	Stars	Description	License
Argh!		Argh! A minimalist argument handler.
argparse		Argument Parser for Modern C++.
args		A simple header-only C++ argument parser library.
CLI11		CLI11 is a command line parser for C++11 and beyond.
clipp		Powerful & Expressive Argument Parsing for Modern C++.
flags		Simple, extensible, header-only C++17 argument parser.
structopt		Parse command line arguments by defining a struct.

Audio

Library	Stars	Description	License
minimp3		Minimalistic MP3 decoder single header library.

Benchmarking

Library	Stars	Description	License
nanobench		Simple, fast, accurate microbenchmarking for C++11.
picobench		A small microbenchmarking library for C++11.

Compression

Library	Stars	Description	License
Gzip		Gzip header-only C++ library.
zstr		A C++ header-only ZLib wrapper.

Concurrency

Library	Stars	Description	License
cs_libguarded		Multithreaded programming.
mvThreadPool		Simple header-only C++ thread pool library.
taskflow		Modern C++ Parallel Task Programming.
transwarp		A header-only C++ library for task concurrency.

Cryptography and Security

Library	Stars	Description	License
cppcodec		Encode/decode base64, base64url, base32, etc.
digestpp		C++11 header-only message digest library.
PicoSHA2		Feader-file-only, SHA256 hash generator in C++.

Databases

Library	Stars	Description	License
OTL		Oracle, ODBC and DB2-CLI Template Library.	OpenBSD

Data Formats

Library	Stars	Description	License
Boost.JSON		JSON parsing, serialization, inspection and modification.
cpptoml		Header-only library for parsing TOML.
csv2		Fast CSV parser and writer for Modern C++.
CSV Parser		Reading, writing, and analyzing CSV files.
daw_json_link		Static JSON parsing in C++.
Fast C++ CSV Parser		Fast library for reading CSV files.
inih		This is a header only C++ version of inih.
nlohmann/json		JSON for Modern C++.
jsoncons		Construct JSON and JSON-like data formats.
picojson		a header-file-only, JSON parser serializer in C++.
rapidcsv		C++ CSV parser library.
rapidjson		A fast JSON parser/generator for C++.
rapidxml		RapidXML fork; XML namespacing, per-element parsing, etc.
simdjson		Parsing gigabytes of JSON per second.
simpleini		Read and write INI-style configuration files.
taocpp JSON		C++ header-only JSON library.
toml11		TOML for Modern C++.
tomlplusplus		TOML config file parser and serializer for >=C++17.
tortellini		A really stupid INI file format for C++11.
valijson		JSON Schema validation.
xml2json		A header-only C++ library converts XML to JSON.

Data Mining, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning

Library	Stars	Description	License
dlib		A toolkit for real-world machine learning and data analysis.
frugally deep		Use Keras models in C++.
hnswlib		Fast approximate nearest neighbors.
MiniDNN		A header-only C++ library for deep neural networks.
nanoflann		Nearest Neighbor (NN) search with KD-trees.
tiny-dnn		Dependency-free deep learning framework in C++14.

Data Formatting and Presentation

Library	Stars	Description	License
cxx prettyprint		Pretty-printing of any container in C++(0x).
fmt		A modern formatting library.
pprint		Pretty Printer for Modern C++.
tabulate		Table Maker for Modern C++.

Data Querying

Library	Stars	Description	License
boolinq		Simplest C++ header-only LINQ template library.

Data Structures and Algorithms

Library	Stars	Description	License
chobo-shl		A collection of several stl-like libraries for C++11.
concurrent queue		Fast multi-producer, multi-consumer lock-free concurrent queue.
dynamic bitset		The C++17 header-only dynamic bitset.
frozen		Constexpr alternative to gperf for C++14 users.
hopscotch map		Fast hash map and hash set using hopscotch hashing.
immer		Postmodern immutable and persistent data structures.
MPMCQueue		A bounded multi-producer multi-consumer concurrent queue.
outcome		Lightweight outcome and result.
parallel hashmap		Very fast and memory-friendly hashmap and btree containers.
robin-hood hashing		Fast & memory efficient hashtable based on robin hood hashing.
robin-map		Fast hash map and hash set using robin hood hashing.
tries		Fast and highly customisable C++20 trie implementation.

Debugging

Library	Stars	Description	License
backward-cpp		A beautiful stack trace pretty printer for C++.

Event Handling Mechanisms

Library	Stars	Description	License
eventbus		Mediator pattern event bus for C++.
eventpp		Event Dispatcher and callback list for C++.

File System

Library	Stars	Description	License
filesystem		Cross-platform implementation of std::filesystem for C++11/14/17.
llfio		P1031 low-Level file i/o and filesystem library.
mio		Cross-platform C++11 memory mapped file IO.
tinydir		Lightweight, portable C directory and file reader.

Functional Programming

Library	Stars	Description	License
FunctionalPlus		Functional Programming Library for C++.
immer		Persistent functional data structures in C++.
lager		Redux-like unidirectional data-flow for C++.
schmutz		Easy Guile Scheme C++ bindings.
zug		Transducers (from Clojure) in C++.

Geometry, Graphics Processing, and Game Development

Library	Stars	Description	License
arcball_camera		Immediate-mode camera for your graphics demos.
cinolib		Process polygonal and polyhedral meshes.
cr		A Simple C Hot Reload Header-only Library.
CxxSwizzle		Modern C++ swizzling header-only library.
earcut.hpp		Fast Polygon triangulation.
entt		Entity component system (ECS) and much more.
glm		OpenGL Mathematics (GLM).
librg		🚀 Making multi-player gamedev simpler since 2017.
nanort		Modern ray tracing kernel.
px		Thread Scheduling, Rendering, and so on.
Sokol		Cross-platform libraries for C and C++.
stb		Single-file public domain libraries.
Swarmz		Swarming (flocking) library for real-time applications.
tiny-differentiable-simulator		Tiny Differentiable Simulator is a header-only C++ physics library with zero dependencies.
tinygltf		C++11 tiny glTF 2.0 library.
Vookoo		Take the pain out of Vulkan.
voxelizer		Header only mesh voxelizer in c99.

GPU

Library	Stars	Description	License
thrust		Parallel programming library.
vuda		Vulkan-based library that provides a CUDA Runtime API interface for writing GPU-accelerated applications.

GUI

Library	Stars	Description	License
GuiLite		The smallest header-only GUI library(5 KLOC) for all platforms.
Nuklear		Immediate mode cross-platform GUI library.
WinLamb		C++11 native Win32 GUI library.

HTTP and the Web

Library	Stars	Description	License
cinatra		Modern (c++17), Cross-platform Http Framework.
cpp-httplib		A C++11 Cross platform HTTP/HTTPS library.
jwt-cpp		Create and validate JSON web tokens.
RESTinio		Asynchronous HTTP/WebSocket server C++14 library

Image Processing

Library	Stars	Description	License
color-util		Colors, Color space converters for RGB, HSL, XYZ, Lab, etc.
nanopm		NanoPM, single header only PatchMatch.

Language Bindings

Library	Stars	Description	License
jni.hpp		A modern, type-safe, C++14 wrapper for JNI.
pybind11		Seamless operability between C++11 and Python.
Selene		Simple C++11 friendly bindings to Lua.

Logging

Library	Stars	Description	License
easyloggingpp		Single header C++ logging library.
plog		Portable, simple and extensible C++ logging library.
spdlog		Fast C++ logging library.

Mathematics

Library	Stars	Description	License
amgcl		Solve large sparse linear systems with algebraic multigrid method.
dj_fft		FFT library.
eigen		Template library for linear algebra.
fpm		Fixed-point math library.
kfr		Fast DSP framework, FFT, Sample Rate Conversion, etc.
libmorton		Methods to efficiently encode/decode Morton codes in/from 2D/3D coordinates.
linalg		Short vector math library for C++.
matplotlib-cpp		C++ plotting library built on the popular matplotlib.
NumCpp		C++ implementation of the Python Numpy library.
random		Random for modern C++ with convenient API.
spectra		A header-only C++ library for large scale eigenvalue problems.
universal		Universal Number Arithmetic.

Memory Management

Library	Stars	Description	License
ugc		Incremental garbage collector.

Mocking

Library	Stars	Description	License
FakeIt		C++ mocking made easy.
trompeloeil		C++14 mocking framework.

Networking

Library	Stars	Description	License
asio		Asio C++ Library.
brynet		Cross-platform C++ TCP network library.
cppzmq		Header-only C++ binding for libzmq.
uvw		libuv wrapper in modern C++.

Optimization

Library	Stars	Description	License
ensmallen		C++ library for numerical optimization.

Parsing Expression Grammars

Library	Stars	Description	License
cpp-peglib		PEG (Parsing Expression Grammars) library.
PEGTL		Parsing Expression Grammar Template Library.

Portability Definitions

Library	Stars	Description	License
hedley		Move #ifdefs out of your code.

Reflection

Library	Stars	Description	License
better-enums		C++ compile-time enum to string, iteration.
magic_enum		Static reflection for enums.
meta		Macro-free runtime reflection system.
nameof		Nameof operator for modern C++.
refl-cpp		Compile-time reflection library.
visit_struct		A miniature library for struct-field reflection.

Regular Expression

Library	Stars	Description	License
compile-time regular expressions		A Compile time regular expression matcher.

Robotics

Library	Stars	Description	License
manif		Small library for Lie theory.

Serialization

Library	Stars	Description	License
cereal		A C++11 library for serialization.
fuser		Automatic (de)serialization of C++ types to/from JSON.

SIMD

Library	Stars	Description	License
libsimdpp		Low-level SIMD library.
simde		Implementations of SIMD instruction sets.
tsimd		Fundamental C++ SIMD types for Intel CPUs.

Standard/Support Libraries

Library	Stars	Description	License
expected		C++11/14/17 std::expected.
expected-lite		Expected objects in C++11 and later.
gsl		ISO C++ Guidelines Support Library (GSL) by Microsoft.
gsl-lite		ISO C++ Guidelines Support Library (GSL).
hana		Your standard library for metaprogramming.
mp11		C++11 metaprogramming library.
NanoRange		Range-based goodness for C++17.
numeric_ranges		Numeric algorithms for C++20 Ranges.
optional		C++11/14/17 std::optional.
optional-lite		A C++17-like optional for C++98/11 and later.
range-v3		Range library for C++14/17/20.
rangesnext		Tanges features for c+23 ported to C++20.
span-lite		A C++20-like span for C++98/11 and later.
string-view-lite		A C++17-like string_view for C++98/11 and later.
variant-lite		A C++17-like variant for C++98/11 and later.
Windows Implementation Libraries (WIL)		Readable type-safe C++ interfaces for common Windows coding patterns.

State Machine

Library	Stars	Description	License
hsm		Finite state machine library based on the boost hana.
tinyfsm		A simple C++ finite state machine library.

Statistics

Library	Stars	Description	License
histogram		Multi-dimensional generalized histograms.
kalman		Kalman Filtering Library (EKF, UKF) based on Eigen3.
stats		Statistical distribution functions.

String Utilities

Library	Stars	Description	License
utf-cpp		UTF-8/16/32 for Windows/Linux/MacOs.
wildcards		String matching using wildcards.

Templating Engines

Library	Stars	Description	License
inja		A Template Engine for Modern C++.

Terminal Utilities

Library	Stars	Description	License
indicators		Activity Indicators for Modern C++.
rang		A Minimal library for terminal goodies 💄✨.
termcolor		Print colored messages to the terminal.

Testing Frameworks

Library	Stars	Description	License
ApprovalTests.cpp		Native ApprovalTests for C++.
Catch2		Test framework for unit-tests, TDD and BDD.
doctest		The fastest feature-rich C++11/14/17/20 testing framework.
lest		Tiny framework for unit-tests, TDD and BDD.
ut		UT: C++20 μ(micro)/Unit Testing Framework.

Units

Library	Stars	Description	License
mpusz/units		Compile-time dimensional analysis and unit/quantity manipulation.
nholthaus/units		Dimensional analysis and unit conversion library.
SI		Type safety and user defined literals for physical units.

Web Frameworks

Library	Stars	Description	License
crow		Micro web framework inspired by Python Flask.