head to head · open source
gofr vs defmt
gofr has 20,909 GitHub stars, 1,760 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. defmt has 1,229 stars, 132 forks, 117 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. gofr leads on adoption by 1,601% (20,909 vs 1,229 stars). gofr is written in Go under Apache-2.0; defmt is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. gofr has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, defmt 11%. gofr was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (logging), 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
| gofr | defmt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 132 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gofr if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick defmt if
- You want the defmt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and defmt fits your workflow better
About gofr
GoFr is an opinionated Go framework for building microservices, aimed at Go developers and platform teams who want HTTP, gRPC, data access and observability built in rather than assembled from separate libraries.
About defmt
defmt is an efficient, deferred formatting logging framework for embedded systems written in Rust, aimed at firmware developers building for resource constrained devices such as microcontrollers.
read the full defmt overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gofr or defmt more popular?
gofr has 20,909 GitHub stars and defmt has 1,229. gofr has the larger community by that measure.
Are gofr and defmt free?
Both are open source. gofr is licensed under Apache-2.0 and defmt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gofr and defmt?
gofr is written in Go and defmt in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, gofr or defmt?
Choose gofr if you want the larger community (20,909 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose defmt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.