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kafka vs MadelineProto

kafka has 33,750 GitHub stars, 15,521 forks, 574 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MadelineProto has 3,517 stars, 902 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kafka leads on adoption by 860% (33,750 vs 3,517 stars). kafka is written in Java under Apache-2.0; MadelineProto is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. kafka has attracted 46% as many forks as stars, MadelineProto 26%. kafka 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.

kafka ★ 34K MadelineProto ★ 3.5K category Infrastructure & Operations

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Side by side

kafka MadelineProto
GitHub stars ★ 34K ★ 3.5K
License Apache-2.0 AGPL-3.0
Written in Java PHP
Last push 2026-09-18 2026-09-18
Forks ⑂ 16K ⑂ 902
Self-hosting Yes Yes
Data ownership Your server Your server

pick kafka if

  • You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
  • You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
  • Your stack matches Java
  • You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance

full kafka profile →

pick MadelineProto if

  • You want the MadelineProto feature set and don't need the biggest community
  • You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
  • Your stack matches PHP
  • You evaluated both and MadelineProto fits your workflow better

full MadelineProto profile →

About kafka

Apache Kafka is an open source distributed event streaming platform, written in Java and Scala, for organizations that need high performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission critical applications.

read the full kafka overview →

About MadelineProto

MadelineProto is an async PHP client API for the Telegram MTProto protocol, built for PHP developers who need to interact with Telegram the way the official apps do, without going through the Telegram Bot API.

read the full MadelineProto overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is kafka or MadelineProto more popular?

kafka has 33,750 GitHub stars and MadelineProto has 3,517. kafka has the larger community by that measure.

Are kafka and MadelineProto free?

Both are open source. kafka is licensed under Apache-2.0 and MadelineProto under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between kafka and MadelineProto?

kafka is written in Java and MadelineProto in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.

Which should I choose, kafka or MadelineProto?

Choose kafka if you want the larger community (33,750 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose MadelineProto if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.