head to head · open source
Ente vs Zen
Ente has 28,935 GitHub stars, 1,802 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen has 4,225 stars, 143 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. Ente leads on adoption by 585% (28,935 vs 4,225 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%. 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 | Zen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Dart | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 143 |
| 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 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
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 Zen
Zen is an open source desktop application written in Go for Windows, macOS, and Linux under the MIT license. It operates as a system wide ad blocker and privacy guard, so it applies to traffic from applications on the machine rather than only to browser tabs. It lives in the desktop security and privacy ecosystem, where users want filtering without browser extensions.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ente or Zen more popular?
Ente has 28,935 GitHub stars and Zen has 4,225. 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 (28,935 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Zen if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.