head to head · open source
Bluesky vs Lemmy
Bluesky has 18,295 GitHub stars, 2,837 forks, 2,400 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lemmy has 14,599 stars, 966 forks, 129 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Bluesky leads on adoption by 25% (18,295 vs 14,599 stars). Bluesky is written in TypeScript under MIT; Lemmy is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. Bluesky has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, Lemmy 7%. 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 | Lemmy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 966 |
| 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 Lemmy if
- You want the Lemmy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Lemmy 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 Lemmy
Lemmy is a link aggregator and forum platform for the Fediverse, written in Rust and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It supports communities where users subscribe to forums, post links and discussions, vote, and comment. Each server can operate independently while remaining federated through ActivityPub, so users on one server can interact with users and communities on other servers.
read the full Lemmy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bluesky or Lemmy more popular?
Bluesky has 18,295 GitHub stars and Lemmy has 14,599. Bluesky has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bluesky and Lemmy free?
Both are open source. Bluesky is licensed under MIT and Lemmy under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bluesky and Lemmy?
Bluesky is written in TypeScript and Lemmy in Rust. 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 Lemmy?
Choose Bluesky if you want the larger community (18,295 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Lemmy if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.