head to head · open source
Fizzy vs Backlog.md
Fizzy has 8,283 GitHub stars, 1,212 forks, 67 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Backlog.md has 7,273 stars, 480 forks, 55 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Fizzy leads on adoption by 14% (8,283 vs 7,273 stars). Fizzy is written in Ruby under a custom or non-standard licence; Backlog.md is written in TypeScript under MIT. Fizzy has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Backlog.md 7%. Fizzy 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
| Fizzy | Backlog.md | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.3K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 480 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Fizzy if
- You weight community size — 8.3K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Backlog.md if
- You want the Backlog.md feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Backlog.md fits your workflow better
About Fizzy
Fizzy This is the source code of Fizzy, the Kanban tracking tool for issues and ideas by 37signals. Running your own Fizzy instance If you want to run your own Fizzy instance, but don't need to change its code, you can use our pre built Docker image. You'll need access to a server on which you can run Docker, and you'll need to configure some options to customize your installation. You can find the details of how to do a Docker based deployment in our Docker deployment guide. If you want more flexibility to customize your Fizzy installation by changing its code, and deploy those changes to your server, then we…
read the full Fizzy overview →
About Backlog.md
Backlog.md Markdown‑native Task Manager & Kanban visualizer for any Git repository AI agents write the code. You review the tasks: before, during, and after. npm i g backlog.md Backlog.md turns any folder into a self‑contained project board powered by plain Markdown files and a zero‑config CLI. Why Backlog.md in the AI era AI agents can now produce more plausible code in an hour than you can carefully read in a day. The bottleneck is no longer writing code. It's your attention. You can't meaningfully review 15,000 generated lines in one sitting, but you can read a screenful of task specs with acceptance criteria…
read the full Backlog.md overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Fizzy or Backlog.md more popular?
Fizzy has 8,283 GitHub stars and Backlog.md has 7,273. Fizzy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Fizzy and Backlog.md free?
Both are open source. Fizzy has no licence declared in this registry, and Backlog.md is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Fizzy and Backlog.md?
Fizzy is written in Ruby and Backlog.md in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Fizzy or Backlog.md?
Choose Fizzy if you want the larger community (8,283 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Backlog.md if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.