head to head · open source
Ente vs Zen
Ente has 29,841 GitHub stars, 1,893 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen has 4,343 stars, 145 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ente leads on adoption by 587% (29,841 vs 4,343 stars). Ente is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0; Zen is written in Go under MIT. Ente has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Zen 3%. Zen 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 | Zen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Dart | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 145 |
| 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 Zen if
- You want the Zen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Zen 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 Zen
Zen: Your Comprehensive Ad Blocker and Privacy Guard There is, simply, no way, to ignore privacy. Because a citizenry’s freedoms are interdependent, to surrender your own privacy is really to surrender everyone’s. Edward Snowden, Permanent Record Website • Mastodon • Bluesky • Discord • Documentation Zen is an open source system wide ad blocker and privacy guard for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It works by setting up a proxy that intercepts HTTP requests from all applications, and blocks those serving ads, tracking scripts that monitor your behavior, malware, and other unwanted content. By operating at the system…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ente or Zen more popular?
Ente has 29,841 GitHub stars and Zen has 4,343. Ente has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ente and Zen free?
Both are open source. Ente is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Zen under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ente and Zen?
Ente is written in Dart and Zen in Go. 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 Zen?
Choose Ente if you want the larger community (29,841 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Zen if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.