head to head · open source
cobalt vs FluidFramework
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars, 4,031 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. FluidFramework has 4,951 stars, 589 forks, 207 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cobalt leads on adoption by 823% (45,722 vs 4,951 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; FluidFramework is written in TypeScript under MIT. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, FluidFramework 12%. FluidFramework 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 | FluidFramework | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Svelte | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.0K | ⑂ 589 |
| 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 FluidFramework if
- You want the FluidFramework feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and FluidFramework 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 FluidFramework
Fluid The Fluid Framework is a library for building distributed, real time collaborative web applications using JavaScript or TypeScript. Getting started using the Fluid Framework You may be here because you want to... Learn more about the Fluid Framework Build a Fluid object Documentation and guides can be found at . Hello World repo can be found at . Core Examples repo can be found at . Have questions? Engage with other Fluid Framework users and developers in the Discussions section of our GitHub repo. Using Fluid Framework libraries For a dependency on a Fluid Framework library's public APIs, we recommend a ^…
read the full FluidFramework 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 FluidFramework more popular?
cobalt has 45,722 GitHub stars and FluidFramework has 4,951. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and FluidFramework free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and FluidFramework under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and FluidFramework?
cobalt is written in Svelte and FluidFramework 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, cobalt or FluidFramework?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (45,722 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose FluidFramework if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.