head to head · open source
effect vs CocoaLumberjack
effect has 16,097 GitHub stars, 747 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CocoaLumberjack has 13,319 stars, 2,274 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. effect leads on adoption by 21% (16,097 vs 13,319 stars). effect is written in TypeScript under MIT; CocoaLumberjack is written in Objective-C under BSD-3-Clause. effect has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, CocoaLumberjack 17%. effect 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
| effect | CocoaLumberjack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 747 | ⑂ 2.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick effect if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick CocoaLumberjack if
- You want the CocoaLumberjack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Objective-C
- You evaluated both and CocoaLumberjack fits your workflow better
About effect
Effect is a TypeScript library for building robust, maintainable, type safe, and production grade applications. It lives in the TypeScript and JavaScript ecosystem, distributed as the core effect package alongside a monorepo of integration packages that extend it. The project is MIT licensed, has been developed for roughly seven years, and currently ships Effect V4 as a release candidate, with the main branch holding v4 development and the v3 branch retaining the previous line.
read the full effect overview →
About CocoaLumberjack
CocoaLumberjack is a fast and flexible logging framework, written primarily in Objective C with first class Swift support, for applications targeting macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS and visionOS.
read the full CocoaLumberjack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is effect or CocoaLumberjack more popular?
effect has 16,097 GitHub stars and CocoaLumberjack has 13,319. effect has the larger community by that measure.
Are effect and CocoaLumberjack free?
Both are open source. effect is licensed under MIT and CocoaLumberjack under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between effect and CocoaLumberjack?
effect is written in TypeScript and CocoaLumberjack in Objective-C. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, effect or CocoaLumberjack?
Choose effect if you want the larger community (16,097 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose CocoaLumberjack if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.