head to head · open source
Bluesky vs deltachat-desktop
Bluesky has 18,364 GitHub stars, 2,872 forks, 2,400 open issues and last shipped yesterday. deltachat-desktop has 1,631 stars, 253 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Bluesky leads on adoption by 1,026% (18,364 vs 1,631 stars). Bluesky is written in TypeScript under MIT; deltachat-desktop is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. Bluesky has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, deltachat-desktop 16%. Bluesky 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 | deltachat-desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 253 |
| 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 deltachat-desktop if
- You want the deltachat-desktop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and deltachat-desktop fits your workflow better
About Bluesky
Bluesky Social App Welcome friends! This is the codebase for the Bluesky Social app. Get the app itself: Web: bsky.app iOS: App Store Android: Play Store Development Resources This is a React Native application, written in the TypeScript programming language. It builds on the atproto TypeScript packages (like @atproto/api ), which are also open source, but in a different git repository. There is a small amount of Go language source code (in ./bskyweb/ ), for a web service that returns the React Native Web application. The Build Instructions are a good place to get started with the app itself. The Authenticated…
read the full Bluesky overview →
About deltachat-desktop
Delta Chat Desktop Desktop Application for delta.chat Editions There is a third, WIP edition based on Tauri instead of Electron. It lives in its own repository — deltachat tauri — and consumes this repository's frontend through a pinned upstream/ submodule. See Fediverse Thread and Delta Tauri nlnet project. Documentation Links For Users Troubleshooting CLI flags Keybindings How to make custom Themes For Developers Contribution Guidelines Logging Documentation for Developers Styling Guidelines How to update core How to do end to end testing How to do a release Table of Contents Click to expand Delta Chat Desktop…
read the full deltachat-desktop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bluesky or deltachat-desktop more popular?
Bluesky has 18,364 GitHub stars and deltachat-desktop has 1,631. Bluesky has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bluesky and deltachat-desktop free?
Both are open source. Bluesky is licensed under MIT and deltachat-desktop under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bluesky and deltachat-desktop?
Bluesky is written in TypeScript and deltachat-desktop in TypeScript. 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 deltachat-desktop?
Choose Bluesky if you want the larger community (18,364 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose deltachat-desktop if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.