head to head · open source
gofr vs Pulse
gofr has 20,909 GitHub stars, 1,760 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Pulse has 7,219 stars, 376 forks, 46 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. gofr leads on adoption by 190% (20,909 vs 7,219 stars). gofr is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Pulse is written in Swift under MIT. gofr has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Pulse 5%. 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 | Pulse | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 7.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 376 |
| 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 Pulse if
- You want the Pulse feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and Pulse 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 Pulse
Pulse is an MIT licensed Swift logging framework for Apple platforms that records logs and URLSession network requests inside iOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS apps, then displays them through SwiftUI views so developers and QA teams can inspect and share them directly from the device.
read the full Pulse overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gofr or Pulse more popular?
gofr has 20,909 GitHub stars and Pulse has 7,219. gofr has the larger community by that measure.
Are gofr and Pulse free?
Both are open source. gofr is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pulse under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gofr and Pulse?
gofr is written in Go and Pulse in Swift. 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 Pulse?
Choose gofr if you want the larger community (20,909 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Pulse if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.