head to head · open source
archify vs herdr
archify has 67,632 GitHub stars, 4,517 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped today. herdr has 39,695 stars, 2,992 forks, 337 open issues and last shipped today. archify leads on adoption by 70% (67,632 vs 39,695 stars). archify is written in JavaScript under MIT; herdr is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. archify has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, herdr 8%. archify was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (codex, coding-agents, developer-tools), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| archify | herdr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 40K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.5K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick archify if
- You weight community size — 68K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick herdr if
- You want the herdr 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 herdr fits your workflow better
About archify
Archify is an MIT licensed agent skill and Node.js rendering and validation system that turns a codebase or a written system description into a polished, interactive, self contained HTML system map, and it is built for developers and platform teams working inside coding agents such as Cursor, Claude Code, Codex CLI, and OpenCode.
read the full archify overview →
About herdr
herdr is a terminal first runtime for coding agents — a single Rust binary that owns the terminals in which tools such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode and Grok run, aimed at developers who keep agents working across local and remote machines and want those sessions to survive a lost SSH connection or a closed client.
read the full herdr overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Frameworks & Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Frameworks & Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is archify or herdr more popular?
archify has 67,632 GitHub stars and herdr has 39,695. archify has the larger community by that measure.
Are archify and herdr free?
Both are open source. archify is licensed under MIT and herdr under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between archify and herdr?
archify is written in JavaScript and herdr 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, archify or herdr?
Choose archify if you want the larger community (67,632 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose herdr if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.