head to head · open source
cakephp vs moonshine
cakephp has 8,792 GitHub stars, 3,366 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped yesterday. moonshine has 1,300 stars, 148 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cakephp leads on adoption by 576% (8,792 vs 1,300 stars). cakephp is written in PHP under MIT; moonshine is written in PHP under MIT. cakephp has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, moonshine 11%. moonshine was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (form-builder, php), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| cakephp | moonshine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.8K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 148 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cakephp if
- You weight community size — 8.8K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick moonshine if
- You want the moonshine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and moonshine fits your workflow better
About cakephp
CakePHP is an open source web application framework for PHP, distributed under the MIT license and maintained as an official repository on GitHub. It is built around design patterns that are already familiar to most PHP developers, including Associative Data Mapping, Front Controller, and Model View Controller. The stated goal of the project is to give PHP developers at every level a structured foundation for building robust web applications quickly, without giving up flexibility in how those applications are organised. The project has existed for roughly sixteen years and has accumulated a substantial community,…
read the full cakephp overview →
About moonshine
MoonShine is MIT licensed PHP project listed under Business Software / Forms & Surveys. It is Laravel admin panel and builder for dashboards, tables, forms, CMS, and CRM work. It uses Blade, Alpine.js, and Tailwind CSS. It lives in Laravel ecosystem, but README says CRUD module is separated from Laravel and Eloquent, so it can also work with Symfony, Yii, or other frameworks. Repo is 4 years old, has 1301 stars, 148 forks, 2 open issues, and last push 2026 09 11.
read the full moonshine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cakephp or moonshine more popular?
cakephp has 8,792 GitHub stars and moonshine has 1,300. cakephp has the larger community by that measure.
Are cakephp and moonshine free?
Both are open source. cakephp is licensed under MIT and moonshine under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cakephp and moonshine?
cakephp is written in PHP and moonshine in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cakephp or moonshine?
Choose cakephp if you want the larger community (8,792 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose moonshine if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.