head to head · open source
cobalt vs DesktopEditors
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars, 4,031 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. DesktopEditors has 5,689 stars, 573 forks, 465 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. cobalt leads on adoption by 704% (45,722 vs 5,689 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; DesktopEditors is written in various languages under AGPL-3.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, DesktopEditors 10%. DesktopEditors was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| cobalt | DesktopEditors | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | — |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-10-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 573 |
| 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 DesktopEditors if
- You want the DesktopEditors feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and DesktopEditors 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 DesktopEditors
Welcome to the ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors repo! ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors is a free office suite that combines text, spreadsheet, presentation, and PDF editors & Diagram Viewer. The application allows creating, viewing and editing documents stored on your Windows/Linux PC or Mac without an Internet connection. It is fully compatible with Office Open XML formats: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx. Features you'll love ✨ Take advantage of the powerful editors included in ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors: ONLYOFFICE Document Editor ONLYOFFICE Spreadsheet Editor ONLYOFFICE Presentation Editor ONLYOFFICE Form Creator ONLYOFFICE PDF…
read the full DesktopEditors overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Collaboration & Communication projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Collaboration & Communication field.
Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or DesktopEditors more popular?
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars and DesktopEditors has 5,689. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and DesktopEditors free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and DesktopEditors under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and DesktopEditors?
cobalt is written in Svelte and DesktopEditors in various languages. 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 DesktopEditors?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (45,722 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose DesktopEditors if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.