head to head · open source
Appwrite vs chalice
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chalice has 11,059 stars, 1,011 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Appwrite leads on adoption by 419% (57,400 vs 11,059 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; chalice is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, chalice 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.
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Side by side
| Appwrite | chalice | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 11K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 chalice if
- You want the chalice feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and chalice 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 chalice
Chalice is an Apache 2.0 Python microframework from AWS for writing serverless applications that run on AWS Lambda, aimed at Python developers who want to declare API Gateway routes, scheduled tasks, and event handlers with decorators and ship them with a single command line tool.
read the full chalice overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or chalice more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and chalice has 11,059. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and chalice free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and chalice under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and chalice?
Appwrite is written in PHP and chalice in Python. 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 chalice?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose chalice if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.