head to head · open source
Appwrite vs paasta
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. paasta has 1,731 stars, 251 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Appwrite leads on adoption by 3,216% (57,400 vs 1,731 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; paasta is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, paasta 15%. Appwrite was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (docker), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Appwrite | paasta | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 251 |
| 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 paasta if
- You want the paasta 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 paasta 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 paasta
PaaSTA is an open source, distributed platform as a service written in Python and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It lives in the Kubernetes and Docker infrastructure ecosystem, and it was originally designed for Apache Mesos before being updated to use Kubernetes.
read the full paasta overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or paasta more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and paasta has 1,731. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and paasta free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and paasta under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and paasta?
Appwrite is written in PHP and paasta 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 paasta?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose paasta if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.