head to head · open source
Dokku vs Bear
Dokku has 32,147 GitHub stars, 2,075 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped today. Bear has 6,493 stars, 369 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Dokku leads on adoption by 395% (32,147 vs 6,493 stars). Dokku is written in Go under MIT; Bear is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. Dokku has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Bear 6%. Dokku 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
| Dokku | Bear | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 6.5K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 369 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Dokku if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Bear if
- You want the Bear feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Bear fits your workflow better
About Dokku
Dokku is a self hosted Platform as a Service (PaaS) that runs on a single server using Docker containers. It enables developers to deploy applications using familiar workflows like git push , mimicking the simplicity of Heroku while running entirely under the user’s control. Dokku lives in the DevOps and infrastructure automation ecosystem, targeting teams that want PaaS convenience without relying on cloud vendor lock in.
read the full Dokku overview →
About Bear
Bear is a GPL 3.0, Rust based command line tool that produces a compile commands.json compilation database for any C or C++ build by recording the compiler invocations that run during it, and it is aimed at developers, code explorers, and CI jobs whose build systems cannot emit that database on their own.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dokku or Bear more popular?
Dokku has 32,147 GitHub stars and Bear has 6,493. Dokku has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dokku and Bear free?
Both are open source. Dokku is licensed under MIT and Bear under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Dokku and Bear?
Dokku is written in Go and Bear 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, Dokku or Bear?
Choose Dokku if you want the larger community (32,147 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Bear if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.