head to head · open source
Ente vs Wire
Ente has 28,935 GitHub stars, 1,802 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Wire has 2,549 stars, 180 forks, 173 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. Ente leads on adoption by 1,035% (28,935 vs 2,549 stars). Ente is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0; Wire is written in various languages under GPL-3.0. Ente has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Wire 7%. 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 | Wire | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Dart | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-01-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 180 |
| 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 Wire if
- You want the Wire feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and Wire 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 Wire
Wire is an open source secure collaboration platform whose GitHub overview repository gathers code for clients, encryption, audio/video/signaling, server components, and protocol definitions. It lives in the security and privacy ecosystem, specifically data security and privacy.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ente or Wire more popular?
Ente has 28,935 GitHub stars and Wire has 2,549. Ente has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ente and Wire free?
Both are open source. Ente is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Wire under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ente and Wire?
Ente is written in Dart and Wire in various languages. 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 Wire?
Choose Ente if you want the larger community (28,935 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Wire if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.