head to head · open source
Appwrite vs midway
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. midway has 7,742 stars, 585 forks, 118 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Appwrite leads on adoption by 641% (57,400 vs 7,742 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; midway is written in TypeScript under MIT. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, midway 8%. Appwrite was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (react), 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 | midway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 7.7K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 585 |
| 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 midway if
- You want the midway feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and midway 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 midway
Midway is an open source Node.js framework for building serverless services, traditional applications, microservices, and mini program backends. It is written in TypeScript and released under the MIT license, and it has been developed for roughly eight years, with the most recent push in September 2026. The project lives in the Node.js ecosystem and positions itself as a cloud integrated framework for front end and full stack developers, with integrations for React and Vue.
read the full midway overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or midway more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and midway has 7,742. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and midway free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and midway under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and midway?
Appwrite is written in PHP and midway 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 midway?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose midway if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.