head to head · open source
cobalt vs Piik
cobalt has 45,915 GitHub stars, 4,061 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Piik has 4,139 stars, 252 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. cobalt leads on adoption by 1,009% (45,915 vs 4,139 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; Piik is written in TypeScript under MIT. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Piik 6%. Piik 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 | Piik | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 4.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Svelte | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-11-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.1K | ⑂ 252 |
| 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 Piik if
- You want the Piik feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Piik 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 Piik
Piik Share the good stuff. Private screen sharing for you and up to 20 friends. Website · Download · Gitee mirror · Use online · Documentation English · 简体中文 Piik is a free, open source screen sharing tool for games, movie nights, drawings and photos. Choose what to share and send an invitation. Your friends watch in their browsers. A little room · Show / hide animation Features · Get started · Self hosting · Contributing Features Watch without installing. Friends join by invitation in a desktop or mobile browser. Share from Piik App or an existing Piik site. Choose a screen, window, browser tab or camera…
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or Piik more popular?
cobalt has 45,915 GitHub stars and Piik has 4,139. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and Piik free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Piik under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and Piik?
cobalt is written in Svelte and Piik 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 Piik?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (45,915 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Piik if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.