Awesome Badges

A curated collection of awesome things related to status badges.

While this list is maintained by members of the Shields core team, it
includes Shields-related and non-Shields-related resources.

Dynamic badge services

• Shields.io – Original home of the badges,
  launched in 2014.
• Badgen.net – Fast badge generating service launched
  in 2018.
• NodeICO – Large-format status badges for Node.js
  projects – which were once very popular!
• PlayBadges – Show off your Play Store™ app’s downloads and ratings in your repo
• badge.fury.io – Service for version badges of packages like PyPI, npm, RubyGems, etc.
• dependents.info – Showcase GitHub repository’s network dependents with a badge and image.
• BadgeSize.com – Display the size of any file accessible on GitHub, npm, a CDN service, or hosted elsewhere.
• shieldcn – Shields.io alternative that
  renders badges as shadcn/ui Button components via Satori. Supports npm,
  GitHub, Discord, Reddit, and more with dark/light mode, multiple variants,
  and 40k+ icons.

Badge tools

• Badgetizr – Automatically adds customizable badges to your GitHub and GitLab pull/merge requests.
• Badgie – Scans the contents of your repository and
  adds badges based on what it finds.
• Badges – Node.js/Deno/Browser npm package for rendering the HTML of various badges
• Projectz – Render Badges into your README based on your package.json configuration
• shields.io Raycast extension – A more convenient UI for creating shields.io badges
• shields-badge – RubyGem for generating shields.io badge URLs and Markdown

Raster badges

SVG badges are encouraged because they render better on Retina displays and
scale up beautifully. However in a few environments, such as Slack and HTML
email, SVG images won’t render, so PNG badges are preferred. Shields offers
raster badges through its raster server, raster.shields.io.

• svg-to-image-proxy –
  Rasterizing proxy based on Node and Puppeteer which can be hosted on Vercel.
  (Since 2019 this code has been used to run raster.shields.io, however it’s
  about to be deprecated in favor of squint.)
• squint – Rasterizing proxy based on
  Rust and libcairo.

Static badges

• For The Badge – Provides static badges
  using a flat and boxy badge design which has become a classic. (This badge
  format is available as ?style=for-the-badge on Shields.io.)

Static badge collections

• Badges 4 README.md Profile – Catalog of Shields.io Badges for readme profiles
• Project Types – Static badges for
  four types of open-source project, as classified in Nadia Eghbal’s
  Working in Public.
• Simple Badges – Catalog of Shields.io Badges with Simple Icons
• Absurd badges – Collection of absurd, humorous, static badges
• Made by Human – SVG badges for transparency about human-AI collaboration: Made by Human, Co-created with AI, Crafted by Human, and Human in the Loop

Dynamic data providers

Dynamic data providers are third parties who publish data APIs which can be
used to back one of the dynamic badge services:

• Shields’ Endpoint badge
• Badgen’s https badge
• Badgen’s RunKit endpoint badge

• Cell Shield – a service that allows backing a shields.io badge with a cell from a public Google Spreadsheet.
• TYPO3 Badges – API that provides
  JSON endpoints to render badges of TYPO3 CMS extensions
  via Shields or Badgen.
• Dynamic Badge Formatter – Allows users to apply formatters for metrics, versions, dates, and more to dynamic shields.io badges to make them look consistent.

Badge-rendering software

• badge-maker
  – JavaScript; supports plastic, flat, flat-square, for-the-badge, and
  social styles. Powers Shields.io.
• badgen – TypeScript; supports classic
  and flat. Powers Badgen.
• gradient-badge – JavaScript;
  generates gradient badges in classic and flat.
• poser – PHP.
• pybadges – Python.
• browser-support-badge –
  JavaScript; generates browser version compatibility badges.
• badge4j – Java.
• luabadges – Lua.

Icons

• Simple Icons – Home of the bulk of the
  icons used by both Shields and Badgen.
• Custom Icon Badges – Allows users to more easily use Octicons and their own icons and logos on shields.io badges.
• Simple Badges – Website for finding and previewing Simple Icons on shields.io badges.

Academic articles

• Badges on npm packages
  – Data-driven assessment based on signaling theory applied to how
  badges are used in npm.
  Published in ICSE 2018.
• On the Usage of Badges in Open Source Packages on GitHub
  – Data-driven study of how status badges are used in Cargo and Packagist
  projects.

Historical articles

• An Open Source Rage Diamond
  (Jun. 5, 2014) – An article about the motivation for the Shields
  project by one of its creators.
• Shields badge specification
  – Visual design specification for Shields.

Talks

• Shields.io by Nicco Kunzmann –
  A talk given by Nicco Kunzmann for I Love Free Software Day in Berlin,
  Feb. 14, 2019.
• Cool badges for your project by Marcin Mielnicki
  (photos)
  – A talk given by Shields core team member Marcin Mielnicki for
  Hacktoberfest Poznań 2018.

Hosting your own badge service

• Shields self-hosting
  – Host your own copy of Shields to Heroku, Vercel, using Docker, or on a Node server.
• Badgen self-hosting –
  Host your own copy of Badgen on Vercel.
• ChostPulse –
  Self-hosted Cloudflare Worker to generate real-time status badges for game servers.

Achievement badges

• Parchment Award Digital Badges – A service for creating verifiable
  achievement badges, based on the Open Badges specification.