head to head · open source
Dragonfly vs Butterfly
Dragonfly has 31,841 GitHub stars, 1,294 forks, 308 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Butterfly has 2,089 stars, 159 forks, 47 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Dragonfly leads on adoption by 1,424% (31,841 vs 2,089 stars). Dragonfly is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence; Butterfly is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0. Dragonfly has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Butterfly 8%. Dragonfly 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
| Dragonfly | Butterfly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 159 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Dragonfly if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Butterfly if
- You want the Butterfly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and Butterfly fits your workflow better
About Dragonfly
Before moving on, please consider giving us a GitHub star ⭐️. Thank you! Other languages: 简体中文 日本語 한국어 Português ภาษาไทย Website • Docs • Quick Start • Community Discord • Dragonfly User Conference • Join the Dragonfly Community GitHub Discussions • GitHub Issues • Contributing • AI Agents Guide • Dragonfly Cloud The world's most efficient in memory data store Dragonfly is an in memory data store built for modern application workloads. Fully compatible with Redis and Memcached APIs, Dragonfly requires no code changes to adopt. Compared to legacy in memory datastores, Dragonfly delivers 25X more throughput…
read the full Dragonfly overview →
About Butterfly
Butterfly 🎨 Take notes, draw freely, and organize ideas across an endless workspace 🎨 Website • Download • Crowdin • Matrix • Discord • Mastodon • Bluesky • Linwood • Contribute Think visually. Keep your canvas yours. Butterfly is an open source app for people who think better with space around their ideas. Instead of writing everything from top to bottom on a fixed page, you get an endless workspace where you can place notes, sketches, diagrams, images, and documents wherever they make sense. Use it for class notes, meeting notes, research, math, worksheets, planning, whiteboarding, storyboards, product…
read the full Butterfly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Dragonfly or Butterfly more popular?
Dragonfly has 31,841 GitHub stars and Butterfly has 2,089. Dragonfly has the larger community by that measure.
Are Dragonfly and Butterfly free?
Both are open source. Dragonfly has no licence declared in this registry, and Butterfly is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Dragonfly and Butterfly?
Dragonfly is written in C++ and Butterfly in Dart. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Dragonfly or Butterfly?
Choose Dragonfly if you want the larger community (31,841 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Butterfly if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.