head to head · open source
Coder vs flow-next
Coder has 17,263 GitHub stars, 1,644 forks, 996 open issues and last shipped yesterday. flow-next has 716 stars, 63 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Coder leads on adoption by 2,311% (17,263 vs 716 stars). Coder is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; flow-next is written in Python under MIT. Coder has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, flow-next 9%. Coder 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
| Coder | flow-next | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 716 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 63 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Coder if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick flow-next if
- You want the flow-next feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and flow-next fits your workflow better
About Coder
Self Hosted Cloud Development Environments and AI Agents Quickstart Docs Why Coder Premium Coder is a self hosted platform for cloud development environments and AI coding agents. Workspaces are defined with Terraform, connected through a secure Wireguard® tunnel, and automatically shut down when not used. Coder Agents runs a native AI coding agent whose loop executes in the control plane on your infrastructure, with no API keys in workspaces. Define cloud development environments in Terraform EC2 VMs, Kubernetes Pods, Docker Containers, etc. Automatically shutdown idle resources to save on costs Onboard…
read the full Coder overview →
About flow-next
Flow Next Agents generate. flow next proves. Implementation got cheap. Reviewing it, verifying it, and keeping a codebase coherent did not. Flow Next is a workflow plugin that runs inside your coding agent. Give it the change you want and the rules your project follows. It turns that intent into specs, implementation, review, and pull requests with evidence. Your specs, decisions, and task state live in your repository. A real recorded run: plan, then cross model plan review (catches a missing guard, fix, SHIP), then implement plus tests, then impl review SHIP, ending on the receipt. Nothing staged; every frame…
read the full flow-next overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Coder or flow-next more popular?
Coder has 17,263 GitHub stars and flow-next has 716. Coder has the larger community by that measure.
Are Coder and flow-next free?
Both are open source. Coder is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and flow-next under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Coder and flow-next?
Coder is written in Go and flow-next in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Coder or flow-next?
Choose Coder if you want the larger community (17,263 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose flow-next if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.