head to head · open source
Flarum vs Misago
Flarum has 16,400 GitHub stars, 1,668 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. Misago has 2,776 stars, 557 forks, 171 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Flarum leads on adoption by 491% (16,400 vs 2,776 stars). Flarum is written in PHP under MIT; Misago is written in Python under GPL-2.0. Flarum has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Misago 20%. Misago 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 | Misago | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Python |
| Last push | 2026-08-27 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 557 |
| 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 Misago if
- You want the Misago feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Misago 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 Misago
Misago is a Python and Django forum application for building online community forums. It lives in the Python and Django web ecosystem and presents itself as a modern forum platform that challenges outdated forum software opinions.
read the full Misago overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Flarum or Misago more popular?
Flarum has 16,400 GitHub stars and Misago has 2,776. Flarum has the larger community by that measure.
Are Flarum and Misago free?
Both are open source. Flarum is licensed under MIT and Misago under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Flarum and Misago?
Flarum is written in PHP and Misago in Python. 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 Misago?
Choose Flarum if you want the larger community (16,400 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Misago if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.