head to head · open source
Directus vs KeystoneJS
Directus has 38,799 GitHub stars, 4,991 forks, 402 open issues and last shipped yesterday. KeystoneJS has 9,986 stars, 1,262 forks, 138 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Directus leads on adoption by 289% (38,799 vs 9,986 stars). Directus is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; KeystoneJS is written in TypeScript under MIT. Directus has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, KeystoneJS 13%. Directus was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, graphql), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Directus | KeystoneJS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 10.0K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Directus if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick KeystoneJS if
- You want the KeystoneJS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and KeystoneJS fits your workflow better
About Directus
The Collaborative Backend for Builders & AI Connect any SQL database and get instant REST and GraphQL APIs, a visual management Studio, and a native MCP server for AI agents. 45M+ downloads · 500K+ projects deployed [!NOTE] Free for most organizations. Under $5M annual revenue and 50 employees? Directus is completely free. Apply for an Open Innovation Grant license and get a key in minutes. Learn more about our license. 🐇 Introduction Directus wraps any SQL database with a REST and GraphQL API layer and a visual Studio. Engineers control schema and access. Non technical teammates and AI agents work directly…
read the full Directus overview →
About KeystoneJS
Keystone helps you build faster and scale further than any other CMS or App Framework. Describe your schema, and get a powerful GraphQL API & beautiful Management UI for your content and data. No boilerplate or bootstrapping – just elegant APIs to help you ship the code that matters without sacrificing the flexibility or power of a bespoke back end. Contents Usage & Documentation Versioning Code of Conduct Security License Usage & Documentation Keystone 6 is published to npm under the @keystone 6/ namespace. You can find our extended documentation on our website, but some quick links that might be helpful: Read…
read the full KeystoneJS overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Frameworks & Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Frameworks & Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Directus or KeystoneJS more popular?
Directus has 38,799 GitHub stars and KeystoneJS has 9,986. Directus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Directus and KeystoneJS free?
Both are open source. Directus has no licence declared in this registry, and KeystoneJS is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Directus and KeystoneJS?
Directus is written in TypeScript and KeystoneJS 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, Directus or KeystoneJS?
Choose Directus if you want the larger community (38,799 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose KeystoneJS if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.