head to head · open source
gofr vs rsyslog
gofr has 20,817 GitHub stars, 1,790 forks, 132 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rsyslog has 2,347 stars, 745 forks, 207 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. gofr leads on adoption by 787% (20,817 vs 2,347 stars). gofr is written in Go under Apache-2.0; rsyslog is written in C under LGPL-3.0. gofr has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, rsyslog 32%. 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 | rsyslog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 745 |
| 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 rsyslog if
- You want the rsyslog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and rsyslog fits your workflow better
About gofr
Go Fr GoFr: An Opinionated Microservice Development Framework Listed in the CNCF Landscape 🎯 Goal GoFr is designed to simplify microservice development , with a key focus on Kubernetes deployment and out of the box observability . While capable of building generic applications, microservices remain at its core. 💡 Key Features 1. Simple API Syntax 2. REST Standards by Default 3. Configuration Management 4. Observability (Logs, Traces, Metrics) 5. Inbuilt Auth Middleware & Custom Middleware Support 6. gRPC Support 7. HTTP Service with Circuit Breaker Support 8. Pub/Sub 9. Health Check for All Datasources 10…
About rsyslog
Rsyslog – What Is It? Rsyslog is a r ocket fast sys tem for log processing pipelines. It offers high performance, advanced security features, and a modular microkernel like architecture . Originally a regular syslogd, rsyslog has evolved into a highly versatile logging solution capable of ingesting data from numerous sources, transforming it, and outputting it to a wide variety of destinations. Rsyslog can deliver over one million messages per second to local destinations under minimal processing (based on v7, Dec 2013). Even with complex routing and remote forwarding, performance remains excellent. Table of…
read the full rsyslog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gofr or rsyslog more popular?
gofr has 20,817 GitHub stars and rsyslog has 2,347. gofr has the larger community by that measure.
Are gofr and rsyslog free?
Both are open source. gofr is licensed under Apache-2.0 and rsyslog under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gofr and rsyslog?
gofr is written in Go and rsyslog in C. 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 rsyslog?
Choose gofr if you want the larger community (20,817 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose rsyslog if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.