head to head · open source
answer vs symphony
answer has 15,680 GitHub stars, 1,368 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. symphony has 2,939 stars, 507 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. answer leads on adoption by 434% (15,680 vs 2,939 stars). answer is written in Go under Apache-2.0; symphony is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. answer has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, symphony 17%. answer was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (community, forum), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| answer | symphony | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 507 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick answer if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick symphony if
- You want the symphony feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and symphony fits your workflow better
About answer
Apache Answer is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Go and React question and answer platform that teams of any size can run as a community forum, help center, or knowledge management system, and it is aimed at organisations that want their own Q&A site rather than a hosted one.
read the full answer overview →
About symphony
Symphony is a community platform implemented in Java under the AGPL 3.0 license. It combines a discussion forum, a Q&A site, a social network with sharing, friends, and games, and blog like publishing in one system. The project lives in the Java ecosystem and is published through the B3log website and official discussion area.
read the full symphony overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is answer or symphony more popular?
answer has 15,680 GitHub stars and symphony has 2,939. answer has the larger community by that measure.
Are answer and symphony free?
Both are open source. answer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and symphony under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between answer and symphony?
answer is written in Go and symphony in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, answer or symphony?
Choose answer if you want the larger community (15,680 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose symphony if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.