head to head · open source
excelize vs Shlink
excelize has 20,918 GitHub stars, 1,949 forks, 131 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Shlink has 5,293 stars, 413 forks, 22 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. excelize leads on adoption by 295% (20,918 vs 5,293 stars). excelize is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; Shlink is written in PHP under MIT. excelize has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Shlink 8%. excelize 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
| excelize | Shlink | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Go | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 413 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick excelize if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Shlink if
- You want the Shlink feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Shlink fits your workflow better
About excelize
Excelize is a pure Go library for reading and writing XLAM, XLSM, XLSX, XLTM and XLTX spreadsheets, built for Go developers who need to generate or parse Microsoft Excel 2007 and later workbooks directly from their own code.
read the full excelize overview →
About Shlink
Shlink is a self hosted URL shortener written in PHP, published under the MIT license, and maintained in the Shlink ecosystem that includes the shlink.io site and accompanying documentation. It runs as a service that serves shortened links under a domain chosen by the operator, rather than under a domain controlled by a third party. The project is built with the Laminas and Mezzio frameworks and exposes its functionality through a REST API, which is how clients and integrations drive it programmatically.
read the full Shlink overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is excelize or Shlink more popular?
excelize has 20,918 GitHub stars and Shlink has 5,293. excelize has the larger community by that measure.
Are excelize and Shlink free?
Both are open source. excelize is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Shlink under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between excelize and Shlink?
excelize is written in Go and Shlink in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, excelize or Shlink?
Choose excelize if you want the larger community (20,918 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Shlink if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.