head to head · open source
Ballerine vs Formance
Ballerine has 2,431 GitHub stars, 311 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Formance has 525 stars, 67 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Ballerine leads on adoption by 363% (2,431 vs 525 stars). Ballerine is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Formance is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Ballerine has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Formance 13%. Formance 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
| Ballerine | Formance | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.4K | ★ 525 |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 311 | ⑂ 67 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ballerine if
- You weight community size — 2.4K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Formance if
- You want the Formance feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Formance fits your workflow better
About Ballerine
Ballerine open source risk management infrastructure. Tagline describes AI agents transforming merchant risk decisions at scale. It helps global payment companies, marketplaces, fintechs automate decisions for merchants, sellers, users across customer lifecycle. It lives in finance, fintech, compliance, fraud, identity verification ecosystem. It covers account opening, KYC, KYB, underwriting, transaction monitoring. GitHub metadata shows 2429 stars, 311 forks, 19 open issues, zero contributors, NOASSERTION license. Repository age is listed as 0 years. Last push date is 2026 09 09.
read the full Ballerine overview →
About Formance
Formance is an open source, modular developer platform written in Go for building and operating complex money flows of any size and shape, aimed at fintech engineers and platform teams who need to record internal financial transactions and move money without assembling that infrastructure from scratch.
read the full Formance overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ballerine or Formance more popular?
Ballerine has 2,431 GitHub stars and Formance has 525. Ballerine has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ballerine and Formance free?
Neither Ballerine nor Formance declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Ballerine and Formance?
Ballerine is written in TypeScript and Formance in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Ballerine or Formance?
Choose Ballerine if you want the larger community (2,431 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Formance if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.