head to head · open source
Ente vs SAMA
Ente has 29,841 GitHub stars, 1,893 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SAMA has 161 stars, 16 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 29 days ago. Ente leads on adoption by 18,435% (29,841 vs 161 stars). Ente is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0; SAMA is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. Ente has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, SAMA 10%. Ente 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
| Ente | SAMA | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 161 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Dart | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 16 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ente if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick SAMA if
- You want the SAMA feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and SAMA fits your workflow better
About Ente
Fully open source end to end encrypted photos, authenticators and more. Ente Ente is a service that provides a fully open source, end to end encrypted platform for you to store your data in the cloud without needing to trust the service provider. On top of this platform, we have built three apps so far: Ente Photos (an alternative to Apple and Google Photos), Ente Locker (a safe space for your most important documents and credentials), and Ente Auth (a 2FA alternative to the deprecated Authy). This monorepo contains all our source code the client apps (iOS / Android / F Droid / Web / Linux / macOS / Windows) for…
About SAMA
SAMA Simple but Advanced Messaging Alternative Chat server Powered by uWebSockets.js Motivation The intention of our messaging protocol and chat server, which are different from others, is to provide an alternative solution to the wide spread XMPP messaging protocol (and to be honest — the only wide spread ‘standard’ these days). Read complete medium posts Introducing SAMA and What is SAMA about what is SAMA and what problems we are trying to solve with it: Clients: Frontend Web app Flutter app Development & Deployment Local Development / Compete Deployment & E2E Tests DEMO The whole SAMA stack can be tested…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ente or SAMA more popular?
Ente has 29,841 GitHub stars and SAMA has 161. Ente has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ente and SAMA free?
Both are open source. Ente is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SAMA under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ente and SAMA?
Ente is written in Dart and SAMA in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Ente or SAMA?
Choose Ente if you want the larger community (29,841 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose SAMA if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.