head to head · open source
Bluesky vs pump.io
Bluesky has 18,364 GitHub stars, 2,872 forks, 2,400 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pump.io has 2,240 stars, 327 forks, 679 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. Bluesky leads on adoption by 720% (18,364 vs 2,240 stars). Bluesky is written in TypeScript under MIT; pump.io is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. Bluesky has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, pump.io 15%. 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 | pump.io | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-02-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 327 |
| 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 pump.io if
- You want the pump.io feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and pump.io 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 pump.io
pump.io This is pump.io. It's a stream server that does most of what people really want from a social network. What's it for? I post something and my followers see it. That's the rough idea behind the pump. There's an API defined in the API.md file. It uses activitystrea.ms JSON as the main data and command format. You can post almost anything that can be represented with activity streams short or long text, bookmarks, images, video, audio, events, geo checkins. You can follow friends, create lists of people, and so on. The software is useful for at least these scenarios: Activity stream functionality for an…
read the full pump.io overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bluesky or pump.io more popular?
Bluesky has 18,364 GitHub stars and pump.io has 2,240. Bluesky has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bluesky and pump.io free?
Both are open source. Bluesky is licensed under MIT and pump.io under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Bluesky and pump.io?
Bluesky is written in TypeScript and pump.io in JavaScript. 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 pump.io?
Choose Bluesky if you want the larger community (18,364 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pump.io if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.