head to head · open source
Appwrite vs devbox
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. devbox has 12,362 stars, 357 forks, 466 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Appwrite leads on adoption by 364% (57,400 vs 12,362 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; devbox is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, devbox 3%. 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 | devbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 12K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 357 |
| 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 devbox if
- You want the devbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and devbox 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 devbox
Devbox is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed command line tool written in Go that creates isolated, reproducible development shells from a single declaration file, and it is aimed at individual developers and teams who need identical toolchain versions on every machine and in every environment.
read the full devbox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or devbox more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and devbox has 12,362. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and devbox free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and devbox under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and devbox?
Appwrite is written in PHP and devbox in Go. 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 devbox?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose devbox if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.