head to head · open source
giscus vs democracyos
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars, 491 forks, 127 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. democracyos has 1,784 stars, 608 forks, 120 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. giscus leads on adoption by 584% (12,204 vs 1,784 stars). giscus is written in TypeScript under MIT; democracyos is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. giscus has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, democracyos 34%. giscus was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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 | democracyos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-05-26 | 2025-12-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 491 | ⑂ 608 |
| 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 democracyos if
- You want the democracyos feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and democracyos fits your workflow better
About giscus
[giscus][giscus] A comments system powered by [GitHub Discussions][discussions]. Let visitors leave comments and reactions on your website via GitHub! Heavily inspired by [utterances][utterances]. [Open source][repo]. 🌏 No tracking, no ads, always free. 📡 🚫 No database needed. All data is stored in GitHub Discussions. :octocat: Supports [custom themes][creating custom themes]! 🌗 Supports [multiple languages][multiple languages]. 🌐 [Extensively configurable][advanced usage]. 🔧 Automatically fetches new comments and edits from GitHub. 🔃 [Can be self hosted][self hosting]! 🤳 Note giscus is still under…
read the full giscus overview →
About democracyos
⚠️ IMPORTANT DemocracyOS is currently without maintenance. More information about it will be published soon. For now you can check democraciaos.org DemocracyOS DemocracyOS is an online space for deliberation and voting on political proposals. It is a platform for a more open and participatory government.The software aims to stimulate better arguments and come to better rulings, as peers. Installation Please refer to the Installation wiki page for detailed instructions on how to install and setup your instance of DemocracyOS. Current DemocracyOS deployments DemocracyOS PDR: The Net Party's official deployment of…
read the full democracyos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is giscus or democracyos more popular?
giscus has 12,204 GitHub stars and democracyos has 1,784. giscus has the larger community by that measure.
Are giscus and democracyos free?
Both are open source. giscus is licensed under MIT and democracyos under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between giscus and democracyos?
giscus is written in TypeScript and democracyos in JavaScript. 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 democracyos?
Choose giscus if you want the larger community (12,204 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose democracyos if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.