head to head · open source
grocy vs Shelf
grocy has 9,510 GitHub stars, 806 forks, 135 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Shelf has 3,014 stars, 367 forks, 181 open issues and last shipped yesterday. grocy leads on adoption by 216% (9,510 vs 3,014 stars). grocy is written in Blade under MIT; Shelf is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. grocy has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Shelf 12%. Shelf was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| grocy | Shelf | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.5K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Blade | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 806 | ⑂ 367 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick grocy if
- You weight community size — 9.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Blade
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Shelf if
- You want the Shelf 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 Shelf fits your workflow better
About grocy
Grocy is a self hosted, web based groceries and household management application — "ERP beyond your fridge" — for people who want to track pantry stock, shopping and meal planning on hardware they control.
read the full grocy overview →
About Shelf
Shelf is a free, open source platform for tracking physical assets, including equipment, devices, tools, vehicles, props, and inventory. It is built for teams that need to know what they have, where it is, and who is using it. The project sits in the IT asset management, equipment management, scheduling, and operations software ecosystem.
read the full Shelf overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is grocy or Shelf more popular?
grocy has 9,510 GitHub stars and Shelf has 3,014. grocy has the larger community by that measure.
Are grocy and Shelf free?
Both are open source. grocy is licensed under MIT and Shelf under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between grocy and Shelf?
grocy is written in Blade and Shelf 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, grocy or Shelf?
Choose grocy if you want the larger community (9,510 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Shelf if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.