head to head · open source
Dokku vs xmake
Dokku has 32,146 GitHub stars, 2,076 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. xmake has 12,220 stars, 954 forks, 255 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Dokku leads on adoption by 163% (32,146 vs 12,220 stars). Dokku is written in Shell under MIT; xmake is written in Lua under Apache-2.0. Dokku has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, xmake 8%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Dokku | xmake | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 954 |
| 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 Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick xmake if
- You want the xmake feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and xmake 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 xmake
Xmake is a cross platform build utility and package manager, written in Lua and licensed under Apache 2.0, that takes a single xmake.lua project file and turns it into builds for desktop, mobile, BSD, Wasm and other targets — it is aimed at C, C++, Objective C and mixed toolchain developers who want Make/Ninja style building, CMake/Meson style project generation, and Vcpkg/Conan style dependency handling from one tool.
read the full xmake overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Build & Deployment projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Build & Deployment field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dokku or xmake more popular?
Dokku has 32,146 GitHub stars and xmake has 12,220. Dokku has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dokku and xmake free?
Both are open source. Dokku is licensed under MIT and xmake under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Dokku and xmake?
Dokku is written in Shell and xmake in Lua. 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 xmake?
Choose Dokku if you want the larger community (32,146 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xmake if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.