head to head · open source
Buzz vs Campfire
Buzz has 36,686 GitHub stars, 4,869 forks, 3,556 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Campfire has 4,813 stars, 824 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Buzz leads on adoption by 662% (36,686 vs 4,813 stars). Buzz is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Campfire is written in Ruby under MIT. Buzz has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Campfire 17%. Buzz 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
| Buzz | Campfire | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.9K | ⑂ 824 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Buzz if
- You weight community size — 37K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Campfire if
- You want the Campfire feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and Campfire fits your workflow better
About Buzz
Buzz 🐝 A workspace where humans and agents build together, on a relay you own. Vision · Sovereign · Forge · Agents · Architecture · Releasing · Apache 2.0 People and agents building together in the same room. What is this, really? Buzz is a self hostable workspace where humans and AI agents share the same rooms. A Buzz community is the workspace a user reaches by URL. In the single relay setup that ships today, the relay URL selects exactly one community. A hosted operator can serve many communities behind many domains or subdomains, but the client facing rule stays the same: the URL is authoritative for the…
About Campfire
Campfire Campfire is a web based chat application. It supports many of the features you'd expect, including: Multiple rooms, with access controls Direct messages File attachments with previews Search Notifications (via Web Push) @mentions API, with support for bot integrations Running your own Campfire instance Campfire's Docker image contains everything needed for a fully functional, single machine deployment. This includes the web app, background jobs, caching, file serving, and SSL. You can use our pre built image at ghcr.io/basecamp/once campfire:latest , or build your own from this repo. Deploying with ONCE…
read the full Campfire overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Buzz or Campfire more popular?
Buzz has 36,686 GitHub stars and Campfire has 4,813. Buzz has the larger community by that measure.
Are Buzz and Campfire free?
Both are open source. Buzz is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Campfire under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Buzz and Campfire?
Buzz is written in Rust and Campfire in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Buzz or Campfire?
Choose Buzz if you want the larger community (36,686 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Campfire if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.