head to head · open source
Huly vs Campfire
Huly has 28,042 GitHub stars, 2,187 forks, 849 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Campfire has 4,813 stars, 824 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Huly leads on adoption by 483% (28,042 vs 4,813 stars). Huly is written in TypeScript under EPL-2.0; Campfire is written in Ruby under MIT. Huly has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Campfire 17%. Campfire 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
| Huly | Campfire | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | EPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 824 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Huly if
- You weight community size — 28K stars and counting
- You want the EPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Campfire if
- You want the Campfire feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and Campfire fits your workflow better
About Huly
Huly Platform ⭐️ Your star shines on us. Star us on GitHub! [!IMPORTANT] Hosted Huly is shutting down — please migrate your data. The hosted Huly service is being discontinued because its hosting is no longer being funded. If you keep important data on the hosted platform, export and back it up, and migrate as soon as possible — we can help you move to either a self hosted setup or a hosted option. Not sure how? Follow the backup & restore guide for step by step instructions on downloading your backup and restoring it elsewhere. The service shutdown is expected on July 20 . Please make sure to export and migrate…
About Campfire
Campfire Campfire is a web based chat application. It supports many of the features you'd expect, including: Multiple rooms, with access controls Direct messages File attachments with previews Search Notifications (via Web Push) @mentions API, with support for bot integrations Running your own Campfire instance Campfire's Docker image contains everything needed for a fully functional, single machine deployment. This includes the web app, background jobs, caching, file serving, and SSL. You can use our pre built image at ghcr.io/basecamp/once campfire:latest , or build your own from this repo. Deploying with ONCE…
read the full Campfire overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Huly or Campfire more popular?
Huly has 28,042 GitHub stars and Campfire has 4,813. Huly has the larger community by that measure.
Are Huly and Campfire free?
Both are open source. Huly is licensed under EPL-2.0 and Campfire under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Huly and Campfire?
Huly is written in TypeScript and Campfire in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Huly or Campfire?
Choose Huly if you want the larger community (28,042 stars) or its EPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Campfire if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.