Top 15 C++ single-file Projects

doctest

1 21 6,375 4.3 C++

The fastest feature-rich C++11/14/17/20/23 single-header testing framework

Project mention: Doctest is a new C++ testing framework | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-07-09
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Magic Enum C++

2 44 5,645 7.0 C++

Static reflection for enums (to string, from string, iteration) for modern C++, work with any enum type without any macro or boilerplate code
Nameof C++

3 5 2,229 4.6 C++

Nameof operator for modern C++, simply obtain the name of a variable, type, function, macro, and enum
tomlplusplus

4 23 1,852 7.3 C++

Header-only TOML config file parser and serializer for C++17.
nanobench

5 13 1,594 2.5 C++

Simple, fast, accurate single-header microbenchmarking functionality for C++11/14/17/20
Argh!

6 1 1,396 2.4 C++

Argh! A minimalist argument handler. (by adishavit)
span-lite

7 2 503 5.3 C++

span lite - A C++20-like span for C++98, C++11 and later in a single-file header-only library
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expected-lite

8 3 487 6.0 C++

expected lite - Expected objects in C++11 and later in a single-file header-only library
string-view-lite

9 2 445 4.1 C++

string_view lite - A C++17-like string_view for C++98, C++11 and later in a single-file header-only library
semver

10 0 337 5.0 C++

Semantic Versioning for modern C++ (by Neargye)
imgui_entt_entity_editor

11 1 244 3.0 C++

A drop-in entity editor for EnTT with Dear ImGui
serializer

12 2 195 1.8 C++

A single header standard C++ serialization framework. (by eyalz800)
scope_guard

13 3 191 3.7 C++

A modern C++ scope guard that is easy to use but hard to misuse.
ring-span-lite

14 1 161 4.1 C++

ring-span lite - A C++yy-like ring_span type for C++98, C++11 and later in a single-file header-only library
reflect

15 2 15 3.5 C++

A single file header only static reflection library for C++20. (by M-Fatah)
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NOTE: The open source projects on this list are ordered by number of github stars. The number of mentions indicates repo mentiontions in the last 12 Months or since we started tracking (Dec 2020).

C++ single-file discussion

C++ single-file related posts

Refactoring with C++17 std::optional

2 projects | /r/cpp | 22 May 2023
Is there a std::string::split or something similar?

2 projects | /r/cpp_questions | 13 Mar 2023
The 23 year-old C++ developers with three job offers over $500k

2 projects | /r/cpp | 22 Apr 2022
Nanobench: Fast, Accurate, Single-Header Microbenchmarking Functionality For C++

2 projects | /r/cpp | 9 Nov 2021
C++ Return: std::any, std::optional, or std::variant?

1 project | /r/cpp | 20 Sep 2021
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Index

What are some of the best open-source single-file projects in C++? This list will help you:

#	Project	Stars
1	doctest	6,375
2	Magic Enum C++	5,645
3	Nameof C++	2,229
4	tomlplusplus	1,852
5	nanobench	1,594
6	Argh!	1,396
7	span-lite	503
8	expected-lite	487
9	string-view-lite	445
10	semver	337
11	imgui_entt_entity_editor	244
12	serializer	195
13	scope_guard	191
14	ring-span-lite	161
15	reflect	15