head to head · open source
Appwrite vs cell
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cell has 746 stars, 66 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. Appwrite leads on adoption by 7,594% (57,400 vs 746 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; cell is written in TypeScript under MIT. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, cell 9%. Appwrite was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Appwrite | cell | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 746 |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-11-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 66 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Appwrite if
- You weight community size — 57K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cell if
- You want the cell feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and cell fits your workflow better
About Appwrite
Appwrite is an open source backend platform that consolidates infrastructure services—authentication, databases, storage, functions, messaging, hosting, and real time capabilities—into a single, unified system. It runs as a self hosted service or via a managed cloud offering (Appwrite Cloud), targeting developers who want to avoid assembling and maintaining disparate backend tools.
read the full Appwrite overview →
About cell
Cell is TypeScript serverless first application framework. It lives in npm/TypeScript ecosystem. It targets serverless functions, microservices, BFF, full stack apps. It also connects Aliyun, AWS, Tencent Cloud. It is component based and platform independent.
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or cell more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and cell has 746. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and cell free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and cell under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and cell?
Appwrite is written in PHP and cell in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Appwrite or cell?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose cell if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.