head to head · open source
cobalt vs Piik
cobalt has 43,786 GitHub stars, 3,839 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Piik has 533 stars, 42 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cobalt leads on adoption by 8,115% (43,786 vs 533 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 8%. 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 | ★ 44K | ★ 533 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Svelte | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-09-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 42 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cobalt if
- You weight community size — 44K 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
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 Piik
Piik is a free, MIT licensed screen sharing tool for games, movie nights, drawings and photos, built so that one host can share with up to 20 friends who watch in a desktop or mobile browser without installing anything.
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or Piik more popular?
cobalt has 43,786 GitHub stars and Piik has 533. 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 (43,786 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Piik if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.