head to head · open source
webtorrent vs Harper
webtorrent has 31,465 GitHub stars, 2,852 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Harper has 17,365 stars, 794 forks, 896 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webtorrent leads on adoption by 81% (31,465 vs 17,365 stars). webtorrent is written in JavaScript under MIT; Harper is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. webtorrent has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Harper 5%. Harper was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (nodejs), 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
| webtorrent | Harper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 794 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick webtorrent if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Harper if
- You want the Harper 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 Harper fits your workflow better
About webtorrent
WebTorrent The streaming torrent client. For node.js and the web. Sponsored by WebTorrent is a streaming torrent client for node.js and the browser . YEP, THAT'S RIGHT. THE BROWSER. It's written completely in JavaScript – the language of the web – so the same code works in both runtimes. In node.js, this module is a simple torrent client, using TCP and UDP to talk to other torrent clients. In the browser, WebTorrent uses WebRTC (data channels) for peer to peer transport. It can be used without browser plugins, extensions, or installations. It's Just JavaScript™. Note: WebTorrent does not support UDP/TCP peers in…
read the full webtorrent overview →
About Harper
Harper Harper is an English grammar checker designed to be just right. I created it after years of dealing with the shortcomings of the competition. Grammarly was too expensive and too overbearing. Its suggestions lacked context, and were often just plain wrong . Not to mention: it's a privacy nightmare. Everything you write with Grammarly is sent to their servers. Their privacy policy claims they don't sell the data, but that doesn't mean they don't use it to train large language models and god knows what else. Not only that, but the round trip time of the network request makes revising your work all the more…
read the full Harper overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is webtorrent or Harper more popular?
webtorrent has 31,465 GitHub stars and Harper has 17,365. webtorrent has the larger community by that measure.
Are webtorrent and Harper free?
Both are open source. webtorrent is licensed under MIT and Harper under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between webtorrent and Harper?
webtorrent is written in JavaScript and Harper 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, webtorrent or Harper?
Choose webtorrent if you want the larger community (31,465 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Harper if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.