head to head · open source
Appwrite vs middy
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. middy has 3,904 stars, 399 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Appwrite leads on adoption by 1,370% (57,400 vs 3,904 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; middy is written in JavaScript under MIT. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, middy 10%. Appwrite was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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
| Appwrite | middy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 399 |
| 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 middy if
- You want the middy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and middy 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 middy
Middy middleware engine AWS Lambda Node.js. Handler focus business logic. Attach reusable steps parsing, validation, auth, observability, error handling, AWS service integration. Ecosystem JavaScript TypeScript serverless. Official packages cover Lambda event sources and HTTP services. Project MIT licensed. Homepage middy.js.org. Docs cover getting started, official middlewares, event types, routers, custom middlewares, recipes, FAQ. GitHub metadata lists 3904 stars, 399 forks, 9 open issues, 9 year repo age, and last push 2026 09 12T15:33:46Z.
read the full middy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or middy more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and middy has 3,904. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and middy free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and middy under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and middy?
Appwrite is written in PHP and middy in JavaScript. 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 middy?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose middy if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.