head to head · open source
Flarum vs jivejdon
Flarum has 16,400 GitHub stars, 1,668 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. jivejdon has 588 stars, 160 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Flarum leads on adoption by 2,689% (16,400 vs 588 stars). Flarum is written in PHP under MIT; jivejdon is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Flarum has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, jivejdon 27%. jivejdon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (forum), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| Flarum | jivejdon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 588 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Java |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 160 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Flarum if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick jivejdon if
- You want the jivejdon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and jivejdon fits your workflow better
About Flarum
Flarum is an open source forum software project for building and running online community discussions on a website. It is positioned as a simple discussion platform with a fast interface and a PHP based application, and it is distributed under the MIT License. It lives in the PHP web application ecosystem, and its topics include forum, Laravel, and PHP.
read the full Flarum overview →
About jivejdon
Jivejdon is a Java, Apache 2.0 licensed chain notebook and knowledge system that combines DDD, domain events, event sourcing, CQRS and clean/hexagonal architecture to link blog and forum posts into a knowledge graph — built for enterprises and teams that want to run their own internal knowledge system rather than a flat publishing CMS.
read the full jivejdon overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Flarum or jivejdon more popular?
Flarum has 16,400 GitHub stars and jivejdon has 588. Flarum has the larger community by that measure.
Are Flarum and jivejdon free?
Both are open source. Flarum is licensed under MIT and jivejdon under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Flarum and jivejdon?
Flarum is written in PHP and jivejdon in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Flarum or jivejdon?
Choose Flarum if you want the larger community (16,400 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose jivejdon if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.