head to head · open source
Bluesky vs owncast
Bluesky has 18,364 GitHub stars, 2,872 forks, 2,400 open issues and last shipped yesterday. owncast has 11,644 stars, 1,194 forks, 165 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Bluesky leads on adoption by 58% (18,364 vs 11,644 stars). Bluesky is written in TypeScript under MIT; owncast is written in Go under MIT. Bluesky has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, owncast 10%. 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 | owncast | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 owncast if
- You want the owncast feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and owncast 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 owncast
Take control over your content and stream it yourself. Explore the docs » View Demo · FAQ · Report Bug · Report Security Issue Table of Contents 📒 About the Project 🚀 Getting Started 👨💻 Use with your broadcasting software 🛠 Building from source 🚨 Important note about source code and the develop branch 🗄️ Backend ⚛️ Frontend 👏 Contributing 💵 Donors Security 📝 License Contact About The Project Owncast is an open source, self hosted, decentralized, single user live video streaming and chat server for running your own live streams similar in style to the large mainstream options. It offers complete…
read the full owncast overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bluesky or owncast more popular?
Bluesky has 18,364 GitHub stars and owncast has 11,644. Bluesky has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bluesky and owncast free?
Both are open source. Bluesky is licensed under MIT and owncast under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bluesky and owncast?
Bluesky is written in TypeScript and owncast 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, Bluesky or owncast?
Choose Bluesky if you want the larger community (18,364 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose owncast if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.