head to head · open source
core vs writefreely
core has 8,829 GitHub stars, 2,059 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped yesterday. writefreely has 5,254 stars, 398 forks, 108 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. core leads on adoption by 68% (8,829 vs 5,254 stars). core is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; writefreely is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. core has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, writefreely 8%. core 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
| core | writefreely | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.8K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 398 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick core if
- You weight community size — 8.8K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick writefreely if
- You want the writefreely feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and writefreely fits your workflow better
About core
ownCloud Core is the server side component of ownCloud Classic, an open source file platform written in PHP and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It provides file storage, synchronization, and sharing, and it ships WebDAV, CalDAV, and CardDAV servers alongside a plugin architecture that other ownCloud apps extend. The repository is the main one for ownCloud Classic and serves as the foundation for apps such as Activity, Calendar, and Contacts. Development is stewarded by the Kiteworks Open Source Program Office under the ownCloud brand.
About writefreely
WriteFreely is a clean, minimalist publishing platform made for writers, released under the AGPL 3.0 license and written in Go. It belongs to the fediverse: an ecosystem of federated publishing and social software that speaks ActivityPub, the same protocol used by Plume and other ActivityPub powered applications. An instance can be a single writer's blog, a shared internal knowledge base inside an organization, or a community built around the shared act of writing.
read the full writefreely overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is core or writefreely more popular?
core has 8,829 GitHub stars and writefreely has 5,254. core has the larger community by that measure.
Are core and writefreely free?
Both are open source. core is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and writefreely under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between core and writefreely?
core is written in PHP and writefreely in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, core or writefreely?
Choose core if you want the larger community (8,829 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose writefreely if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.