head to head · open source
cobalt vs teamtype
cobalt has 43,461 GitHub stars, 3,812 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. teamtype has 1,920 stars, 54 forks, 113 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cobalt leads on adoption by 2,164% (43,461 vs 1,920 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; teamtype is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, teamtype 3%. teamtype 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 | teamtype | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 54 |
| 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 teamtype if
- You want the teamtype feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and teamtype 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 teamtype
Multiplayer mode for your text editor! For complete end user documentation see the [Teamtype Documentation][docs] site. [!NOTE] Until October 2025, this project was known as "Ethersync". The motivation for the rename was explained in this PR. Teamtype enables real time peer to peer collaborative editing of local files using your own text editor or other tools. For example, you can use it for pair programming sessions, brainstorming, or note taking. It's the missing real time complement to Git and other version control systems! Features 👥 Edit files concurrently by multiple users using different text editors 📍 S…
read the full teamtype overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or teamtype more popular?
cobalt has 43,461 GitHub stars and teamtype has 1,920. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and teamtype free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and teamtype under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and teamtype?
cobalt is written in Svelte and teamtype in Rust. 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 teamtype?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (43,461 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose teamtype if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.