head to head · open source
Appwrite vs piku
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. piku has 6,605 stars, 157 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Appwrite leads on adoption by 769% (57,400 vs 6,605 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; piku is written in Python under MIT. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, piku 2%. 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 | piku | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 6.6K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 157 |
| 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 piku if
- You want the piku feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and piku 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 piku
piku is a small, MIT licensed platform as a service tool written in Python that lets developers deploy applications to their own servers with a git push , and it is aimed at people who want a Heroku like workflow on hardware as modest as a Raspberry Pi.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Appwrite or piku more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and piku has 6,605. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and piku free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and piku under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Appwrite and piku?
Appwrite is written in PHP and piku 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 piku?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose piku if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.