head to head · open source
Appwrite vs Semaphore
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars, 5,725 forks, 1,008 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Semaphore has 1,601 stars, 88 forks, 178 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Appwrite leads on adoption by 3,485% (57,400 vs 1,601 stars). Appwrite is written in PHP under BSD-3-Clause; Semaphore is written in Elixir under a custom or non-standard licence. Appwrite has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Semaphore 5%. Semaphore 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Appwrite | Semaphore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 57K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Custom / other |
| Written in | PHP | Elixir |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 88 |
| 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 Semaphore if
- You want the Semaphore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You evaluated both and Semaphore 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 Semaphore
Semaphore is an open source continuous integration and continuous delivery platform that product teams install on their own infrastructure, or use as a hosted service, to build, test, and deploy software from a YAML based configuration.
read the full Semaphore 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 Semaphore more popular?
Appwrite has 57,400 GitHub stars and Semaphore has 1,601. Appwrite has the larger community by that measure.
Are Appwrite and Semaphore free?
Both are open source. Appwrite is licensed under BSD-3-Clause, and Semaphore has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Appwrite and Semaphore?
Appwrite is written in PHP and Semaphore in Elixir. 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 Semaphore?
Choose Appwrite if you want the larger community (57,400 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Semaphore if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.