head to head · open source
giscus vs chirpy
giscus has 12,110 GitHub stars, 481 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. chirpy has 605 stars, 34 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. giscus leads on adoption by 1,902% (12,110 vs 605 stars). giscus is written in TypeScript under MIT; chirpy is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. giscus has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, chirpy 6%. giscus was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (comments), 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
| giscus | chirpy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 605 |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-05-26 | 2026-04-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 481 | ⑂ 34 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick giscus if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chirpy if
- You want the chirpy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and chirpy fits your workflow better
About giscus
giscus is an open source, MIT licensed commenting system powered by GitHub Discussions that lets visitors leave comments and reactions on a website through their existing GitHub accounts.
read the full giscus overview →
About chirpy
Chirpy is an open source comment system built as a privacy friendly and customizable alternative to Disqus. It ships as a TypeScript application built on Next.js, with TailwindCSS for styling, next auth for authentication, and tiptap for the rich text editor. The project is licensed under AGPL 3.0 and lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem, where it competes with embedded comment widgets such as Disqus and utterances.
read the full chirpy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is giscus or chirpy more popular?
giscus has 12,110 GitHub stars and chirpy has 605. giscus has the larger community by that measure.
Are giscus and chirpy free?
Both are open source. giscus is licensed under MIT and chirpy under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between giscus and chirpy?
giscus is written in TypeScript and chirpy 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, giscus or chirpy?
Choose giscus if you want the larger community (12,110 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose chirpy if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.