head to head · open source
caveman vs Synara
caveman has 116,746 GitHub stars, 6,773 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Synara has 2,160 stars, 326 forks, 317 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. caveman leads on adoption by 5,305% (116,746 vs 2,160 stars). caveman is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Synara is written in TypeScript under MIT. caveman has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Synara 15%. caveman 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
| caveman | Synara | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 117K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 326 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caveman if
- You weight community size — 117K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Synara if
- You want the Synara feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Synara fits your workflow better
About caveman
why use many token when few do trick Your AI coding agent bills by the word and writes like it knows that. Caveman make it stop. ▶️ ThePrimeagen reacts: "No way this actually works" 🏆 1 on GitHub Trending · July 2026 · 🥇 1 Repository of the Day on Trendshift · April 2026 1 on Hacker News · 904 points · 366 comments · 8 Product of the Day on Product Hunt 📄 Cited in CAVEWOMAN , an Adobe Research paper that measured caveman style output cutting cost 1.4 to 2.4×, up to 3× · 🧪 Tested by JetBrains on 86 real coding tasks: "costs you nothing measurable in quality" ⚡ One command, no account, no API key. npx skills…
read the full caveman overview →
About Synara
Synara A focused workspace for coding agents. Projects, provider sessions, execution surfaces, and review tools in one local first desktop application. Download · Website · Documentation · MCP integration · Report an issue Table of contents [!NOTE] Synara is early stage software. APIs and interface details remain under active development. Capabilities 1. Projects, threads, and context Organize work around projects and threads. Projects define the workspace; threads preserve the task specific conversation, state, files, and history. Project aware navigation and conversations Provider and model selection per task…
read the full Synara overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caveman or Synara more popular?
caveman has 116,746 GitHub stars and Synara has 2,160. caveman has the larger community by that measure.
Are caveman and Synara free?
Both are open source. caveman is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Synara under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caveman and Synara?
caveman is written in Go and Synara in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, caveman or Synara?
Choose caveman if you want the larger community (116,746 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Synara if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.