head to head · open source
cobalt vs Openfire
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Openfire has 3,064 stars, 1,404 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. cobalt leads on adoption by 1,314% (43,316 vs 3,064 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; Openfire is written in Java under Apache-2.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Openfire 46%. Openfire 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.
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Side by side
| cobalt | Openfire | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | Java |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 Openfire if
- You want the Openfire feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Openfire 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 Openfire
Openfire is an open source real time collaboration (RTC) server for XMPP, also called Jabber, written in Java under the Apache License 2.0 and maintained as an Ignite Realtime community project for organisations and administrators that want to run their own instant messaging infrastructure.
read the full Openfire overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or Openfire more popular?
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars and Openfire has 3,064. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and Openfire free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Openfire under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and Openfire?
cobalt is written in Svelte and Openfire in Java. 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 Openfire?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (43,316 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Openfire if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.