head to head · open source
Bluesky vs owncast
Bluesky has 18,295 GitHub stars, 2,837 forks, 2,400 open issues and last shipped yesterday. owncast has 11,535 stars, 1,177 forks, 165 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Bluesky leads on adoption by 59% (18,295 vs 11,535 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 | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 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 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 owncast
Owncast is an open source, self hosted, single user live video streaming and chat server written in Go, with a React frontend, released under the MIT license. It positions itself as a way to run your own live streams in a style similar to the large mainstream streaming services, while keeping complete ownership over your content, interface, moderation, and audience. The project lives in the fediverse: its topic list covers ActivityPub, federation, and decentralized networking, placing it alongside other federated social software rather than inside a proprietary platform.
read the full owncast overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bluesky or owncast more popular?
Bluesky has 18,295 GitHub stars and owncast has 11,535. 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 (18,295 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose owncast if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.