head to head · open source
effect vs voltagent
effect has 16,138 GitHub stars, 752 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped today. voltagent has 10,647 stars, 1,135 forks, 86 open issues and last shipped 24 days ago. effect leads on adoption by 52% (16,138 vs 10,647 stars). effect is written in TypeScript under MIT; voltagent is written in TypeScript under MIT. effect has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, voltagent 11%. effect was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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.
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Side by side
| effect | voltagent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-08-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 752 | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 voltagent if
- You want the voltagent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and voltagent 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 voltagent
VoltAgent is an end to end AI Agent Engineering Platform built around an open source TypeScript framework. It lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem, distributed through npm packages such as @voltagent/core and @voltagent/mcp docs server , and it is released under the MIT license. The project is roughly one year old, carries 10,619 stars and 1,126 forks on GitHub, and its most recent push landed on 27 August 2026. The platform has two halves: the open source framework, which supplies memory, RAG, guardrails, tools, MCP, voice, and workflow primitives, and the VoltOps Console, which is offered as either …
read the full voltagent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is effect or voltagent more popular?
effect has 16,138 GitHub stars and voltagent has 10,647. effect has the larger community by that measure.
Are effect and voltagent free?
Both are open source. effect is licensed under MIT and voltagent under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between effect and voltagent?
effect is written in TypeScript and voltagent 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, effect or voltagent?
Choose effect if you want the larger community (16,138 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose voltagent if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.