head to head · open source
Unleash vs Cap
Unleash has 13,811 GitHub stars, 896 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cap has 7,798 stars, 579 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Unleash leads on adoption by 77% (13,811 vs 7,798 stars). Unleash is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Cap is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Unleash has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Cap 7%. Unleash 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
| Unleash | Cap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 7.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 896 | ⑂ 579 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Unleash if
- You weight community size — 14K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Cap if
- You want the Cap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Cap fits your workflow better
About Unleash
Unleash is an open source feature management platform written in TypeScript and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It lives in the DevOps, continuous delivery, and application security ecosystem, and its topics describe feature flags, feature toggles, activation strategies, experiments, and collaboration.
read the full Unleash overview →
About Cap
Cap is a free, open source, self hosted CAPTCHA replacement that swaps visual puzzles for proof of work and instrumentation challenges, built for developers and site operators who want anti bot protection without shipping their visitors' data to a third party service.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Unleash or Cap more popular?
Unleash has 13,811 GitHub stars and Cap has 7,798. Unleash has the larger community by that measure.
Are Unleash and Cap free?
Both are open source. Unleash is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Cap has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Unleash and Cap?
Unleash is written in TypeScript and Cap 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, Unleash or Cap?
Choose Unleash if you want the larger community (13,811 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Cap if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.