head to head · open source
Bluesky vs amethyst
Bluesky has 18,295 GitHub stars, 2,837 forks, 2,400 open issues and last shipped yesterday. amethyst has 1,601 stars, 221 forks, 114 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Bluesky leads on adoption by 1,043% (18,295 vs 1,601 stars). Bluesky is written in TypeScript under MIT; amethyst is written in Kotlin under MIT. Bluesky has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, amethyst 14%. amethyst 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
| Bluesky | amethyst | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 221 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Bluesky if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick amethyst if
- You want the amethyst feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and amethyst fits your workflow better
About Bluesky
Bluesky is the open source social application codebase for the Bluesky Social app. It lives in the AT Protocol ecosystem, also called atproto, and it is written in TypeScript as a React Native application. The project provides client code for Web, iOS, and Android, and it builds on open source atproto packages such as @atproto/api, which live in a separate repository.
read the full Bluesky overview →
About amethyst
Amethyst is Nostr client for Android. Project lives in Nostr social network ecosystem. GitHub description says Nostr client for Android. Topics say android, kotlin, nostr, social network. Category says Community & Social / Social Networking. Homepage is http://amethyst.social. License is MIT. Language is Kotlin. Repository has 1599 stars, 221 forks, 114 open issues. Repository age is 4 years. Last push is 2026 09 15T02:53:19Z. README lists GitHub downloads, Play Store installs, stable release, Quartz Maven Central, Quartz JitPack snapshots, CI, MIT license, DeepWiki.
read the full amethyst overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bluesky or amethyst more popular?
Bluesky has 18,295 GitHub stars and amethyst has 1,601. Bluesky has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bluesky and amethyst free?
Both are open source. Bluesky is licensed under MIT and amethyst under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bluesky and amethyst?
Bluesky is written in TypeScript and amethyst in Kotlin. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Bluesky or amethyst?
Choose Bluesky if you want the larger community (18,295 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose amethyst if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.