head to head · open source
cobalt vs Buzz
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars, 4,031 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Buzz has 36,686 stars, 4,869 forks, 3,556 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cobalt leads on adoption by 25% (45,722 vs 36,686 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; Buzz is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Buzz 13%. 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
| cobalt | Buzz | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 37K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 4.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cobalt if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Svelte
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Buzz if
- You want the Buzz feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Buzz fits your workflow better
About cobalt
best way to save what you love cobalt.tools 💬 community discord server 🐦 twitter 🦋 bluesky cobalt is a media downloader that doesn't piss you off. it's friendly, efficient, and doesn't have ads, trackers, paywalls or other nonsense. paste the link, get the file, move on. that simple, just how it should be. cobalt monorepo this monorepo includes source code for api, frontend, and related packages: api tree & readme web tree & readme packages tree it also includes documentation in the docs tree: how to run a cobalt instance how to protect a cobalt instance cobalt api instance environment variables cobalt api…
read the full cobalt overview →
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…
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or Buzz more popular?
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars and Buzz has 36,686. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and Buzz free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Buzz under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and Buzz?
cobalt is written in Svelte and Buzz in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cobalt or Buzz?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (45,722 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Buzz if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.