Software Alternatives & Startups

tint2 VS ViewForge

Compare tint2 VS ViewForge and see what are their differences

tint2

git clone https://gitlab. com/o9000/tint2. git cd tint2 git checkout 16. 1 mkdir build cd build cmake ..

Rating
0 reviews
ViewForge

Year/Make/Model fitment search for Shopify. 8 verticals, Smart Parse, and your data in Shopify metaobjects — not a vendor database. Free tier, Pro at $49.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Freemium Free trial $19 / Monthly ($19/month Starter 1,000 products, custom templates, CSV import)
Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, tint2 seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 7 times since March 2021.

social mentions
7 vs 0
Productivity popularity
100% vs 0%

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

tint2
ViewForge
Website gitlab.com normalview.pro
Pricing
Freemium Free trial $19 / Monthly ($19/month Starter 1,000 products, custom templates, CSV import) Official pricing
Platforms
Shopify
Company Startup from the United States · 1 - 9 employees · 2026
Listed in

About tint2 and ViewForge

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

tint2
ViewForge

No description of tint2 yet.

ViewForge is a Year Make Model (YMM) parts finder for Shopify. Shoppers pick their vehicle, machine or device from cascading dropdowns and see only the parts that fit. Fitment search works across eight verticals — auto, motorcycle, tractor, marine, power equipment, bicycle, printer and...

Read more about ViewForge

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

tint2 5 features
ViewForge 9 features
  • Lightweight
    Tint2 is designed to be a lightweight panel and taskbar for Linux systems. It consumes minimal system resources, making it an excellent choice for older hardware or systems where resource efficiency is a priority.
  • Highly Customizable
    The panel's configuration is versatile, allowing users to adjust its appearance and behavior extensively through a configuration file. Users can customize elements like colors, fonts, clock settings, and more.
  • Minimalistic Design
    Tint2 offers a clean and minimalistic design, providing just enough features without being overly complex. This simplicity caters to users who prefer a straightforward and distraction-free interface.
  • Multi-desktop Support
    It supports multiple desktops, allowing users to efficiently manage tasks across different virtual desktops, which is particularly beneficial for productivity and organization.
  • Systray Support
    Tint2 includes support for a system tray, enabling users to view and manage system notifications and background applications conveniently.

Possible disadvantages

  • Basic Feature Set
    While its minimalism is advantageous, it also means that Tint2 lacks some of the more advanced features and integrations found in heavier or more complex desktop environments.
  • Manual Configuration
    Customization primarily involves editing configuration files manually, which could be intimidating or inconvenient for users who are not comfortable with text-based configuration or desire a graphical settings manager.
  • Limited Out-of-the-Box Experience
    New users might find the default setup too basic and may need to spend time configuring it to meet their specific needs and preferences, which could be a barrier for those seeking a ready-to-use solution.
  • No Built-in Widget System
    While Tint2 supports system trays and basic applets, it lacks a built-in widget system for enhanced desktop interactivity or information display, which some users may find limiting.
  • Fitment Information
    Cascading Year/Make/Model fitment search, up to four levels
  • Vertical integration nobody else has
    8 built-in vertical templates, plus custom templates on paid tiers
  • Shopify Metaobjects
    Fitment stored as native Shopify metaobjects — your data survives uninstall
  • Smart Data Processing
    Smart Parse: extract fitment from existing product titles and descriptions, with confidence scoring
  • CSV Import/Export
    CSV import with fuzzy matching and a coverage dashboard
  • ACES / PIES
    ACES / PIES import and NHTSA VIN decoding
  • My Garage
    Saved-vehicle garage, compatibility table, and product-page fit notice
  • Context Aware Fitment Search
    Collection-level fitment assignment
  • No Obligations
    Free tier with no expiry, up to 50 products

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

tint2 0 videos + Add
ViewForge 1 video + Add

No tint2 videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

ViewForge: YMM Search & Filter

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
tint2
ViewForge
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing tint2 and ViewForge.

What makes your product unique?

ViewForge's answer:

Three things. (1) Data ownership: ViewForge writes fitment as Shopify metaobjects native to your store — most competitors store fitment in their own database. (2) 8 verticals out of the box: auto, motorcycle, tractor, marine, power equipment, bicycle, printer, electronics — most competitors are automotive-only. (3) Smart Parse: extract fitment automatically from your existing product titles and descriptions instead of re-typing everything.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

ViewForge's answer:

Data ownership. Fitment lives in your Shopify metaobjects, so uninstalling does not take your compatibility data with it. Convermax, EasySearch and PartFinder all keep it in their own databases, and getting it back depends on their export tooling on the day you cancel.

Cost at the low end. The search widget, the compatibility table on the product page and the saved-vehicle garage are all on the free tier, up to 50 products, with no expiry. EasySearch puts the table and the garage behind its $75/month Premium plan. Convermax starts at $250/month.

Automotive and non-automotive coverage. Eight built-in templates, and fully custom templates from $19/month, for catalogs that do not decompose into Year/Make/Model at all.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

ViewForge's answer:

Shopify merchants whose customers need to know whether a part fits before they will buy it — and who do not have an engineer on staff to build that themselves.

Concretely: auto and truck parts retailers, powersports and motorcycle dealers, tractor and agricultural parts sellers, marine and outboard suppliers, small-engine and power equipment stores, bicycle and e-bike component shops, printer supply merchants, and electronics accessory sellers.

Catalog sizes run from a few dozen products on the free tier up into the tens of thousands; it is running in production on a catalog of roughly 40,000 SKUs. The common thread is not the industry — it is that "does this fit my thing" is the question deciding the sale.

What's the story behind your product?

ViewForge's answer:

ViewForge came out of agency work. Normal View was building for a parts retailer running roughly 12,000 SKUs who needed fitment search, and every app we evaluated stored the merchant's compatibility data in the vendor's own database.

That is a strange trade when you look at it directly. Fitment data is genuinely expensive to produce — it is weeks of work — and the merchant would not own the result. It would belong to whichever app happened to be installed that year.

Shopify metaobjects made a different answer possible: write fitment as native structured data inside the merchant's own store. The theme reads it, the Storefront API queries it, Admin GraphQL exports it, and it is still there after an uninstall. That decision is what the rest of the app is built around.

Everything else came from real catalogs rather than a roadmap. Eight verticals exist because a tractor catalog is not Year/Make/Model. Smart Parse exists because that retailer had already written fitment into 12,000 product titles, and nobody was ever going to retype them.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

ViewForge's answer:

  • TypeScript
  • Shopify metaobjects, as the fitment data store
  • Shopify theme app extensions for the storefront components: fitment search, saved-vehicle garage, compatibility table, product-page fit notice
  • Shopify Storefront API, for querying fitment from the theme
  • Shopify Admin GraphQL API, for writing and exporting fitment records
  • NHTSA vehicle database, for VIN decoding
  • ACES and PIES XML parsing, for automotive catalog import

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

tint2 7 mentions
ViewForge 0 mentions
  • How to make Openbox look good with ease?
    At its Arch wiki article you can find that tint2 is described as a simple, unobtrusive and light panel for Xorg. It can be configured to include a system tray, a task list, a battery monitor and more. Its look is configurable and it only... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Im planning to switch to polybar and have some questions
    From what I understand u'r not rly looking for polybar , it just doesn't suit u (as a person who switched from KDE recently) , I think u'r looking for something like `tint2` , it looks horrible but u can customize it , check this and this. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Complete rewrite of the netwmicon-patch: Enables to set _NET_WM\_ICON with a png-image and display an icon for st
    Generally the icon of an application is defined by its desktop-entry. The patch Desktopentry serves this purpose. Unfortunately, some programs like tint2 or Alttab can't make use of the desktop-entry and Rely instead on a hardcoded icon... Source: over 4 years ago

View more

Tracking ViewForge since Aug 2026.

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