head to head · open source
cobalt vs Edgechat
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Edgechat has 709 stars, 203 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. cobalt leads on adoption by 6,009% (43,316 vs 709 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; Edgechat is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Edgechat 29%. Edgechat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| cobalt | Edgechat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 709 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 203 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cobalt if
- You weight community size — 43K 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 Edgechat if
- You want the Edgechat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Edgechat fits your workflow better
About cobalt
cobalt is a media downloader built around a single promise: paste a link, get the file, move on. It is a monorepo containing the source for an API, a web frontend, and related packages, written primarily in Svelte and TypeScript. The project lives in the modern web and JavaScript ecosystem, and its public surface is hosted at cobalt.tools, while the full codebase is published under the AGPL 3.0 license.
read the full cobalt overview →
About Edgechat
EdgeChat is an open source, self hosted team chat system that runs on Cloudflare's serverless platform, built for teams, projects, and small communities that want their own chat space without operating a dedicated server.
read the full Edgechat 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 Edgechat more popular?
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars and Edgechat has 709. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and Edgechat free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Edgechat under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and Edgechat?
cobalt is written in Svelte and Edgechat 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, cobalt or Edgechat?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (43,316 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Edgechat if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.