head to head · open source
GrowthBook vs mCaptcha
GrowthBook has 8,376 GitHub stars, 849 forks, 793 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mCaptcha has 2,490 stars, 93 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. GrowthBook leads on adoption by 236% (8,376 vs 2,490 stars). GrowthBook is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; mCaptcha is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. GrowthBook has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, mCaptcha 4%. GrowthBook 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| GrowthBook | mCaptcha | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.4K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-10-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 849 | ⑂ 93 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick GrowthBook if
- You weight community size — 8.4K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mCaptcha if
- You want the mCaptcha feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and mCaptcha fits your workflow better
About GrowthBook
GrowthBook is an open source platform for feature flags, A/B experimentation, and product analytics that product, data, and platform teams can either consume through a hosted cloud account or run entirely on their own infrastructure.
read the full GrowthBook overview →
About mCaptcha
mCaptcha is a privacy first proof of work CAPTCHA system written in Rust and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It operates as a backend component within the self hosted application security ecosystem, where it provides CAPTCHA, spam protection, and DDoS mitigation for websites and services. The project replaces traditional image based user interaction with an automated computational challenge, so the client device performs the work instead of the human user.
read the full mCaptcha overview →
More in Security & Privacy
Related comparisons
More Application Security projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Application Security field.
Frequently asked questions
Is GrowthBook or mCaptcha more popular?
GrowthBook has 8,376 GitHub stars and mCaptcha has 2,490. GrowthBook has the larger community by that measure.
Are GrowthBook and mCaptcha free?
Both are open source. GrowthBook has no licence declared in this registry, and mCaptcha is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between GrowthBook and mCaptcha?
GrowthBook is written in TypeScript and mCaptcha 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, GrowthBook or mCaptcha?
Choose GrowthBook if you want the larger community (8,376 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose mCaptcha if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.