head to head · open source
Ente vs SAMA
Ente has 28,935 GitHub stars, 1,802 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SAMA has 158 stars, 14 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Ente leads on adoption by 18,213% (28,935 vs 158 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 9%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Ente | SAMA | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 158 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Dart | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 14 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ente if
- You weight community size — 29K 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
Ente is a fully open source, end to end encrypted platform for storing photos, documents and credentials in the cloud, packaged as a monorepo of client apps and a server, and intended for people who want the features of Google Photos, Apple Photos and Authy without having to trust the service provider with their data.
About SAMA
SAMA is a self hostable, GPL 3.0 chat server written in JavaScript and powered by uWebSockets.js, aimed at developers and teams who want to run their own real time messaging backend instead of adopting XMPP.
More in Security & Privacy
Related comparisons
More Data Security & Privacy projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Security & Privacy field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ente or SAMA more popular?
Ente has 28,935 GitHub stars and SAMA has 158. 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 (28,935 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.