head to head · open source
Appwrite vs modern.js
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. modern.js has 5,042 stars, 420 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Appwrite leads on adoption by 1,038% (57,400 vs 5,042 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; modern.js is written in TypeScript under MIT. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, modern.js 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 | modern.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 420 |
| 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 modern.js if
- You want the modern.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and modern.js 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 modern.js
Modern.js is a progressive web framework built on React, written in TypeScript and released under the MIT license. It is developed by ByteDance, where it is used to build upper level frameworks that have supported the development of thousands of web applications. The project lives in the JavaScript and React ecosystem, and it is closely tied to the web infra dev family of tools, which includes Rspack, Rsbuild, Rspress and Rslib. The repository has been active for roughly five years, carries about 5,042 stars and 420 forks, and shows 66 open issues.
read the full modern.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or modern.js more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and modern.js has 5,042. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and modern.js free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and modern.js under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and modern.js?
Appwrite is written in PHP and modern.js 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 modern.js?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose modern.js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.