head to head · open source
Karakeep vs Capd
Karakeep has 29,110 GitHub stars, 1,516 forks, 726 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Capd has 51 stars, 1 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Karakeep leads on adoption by 56,978% (29,110 vs 51 stars). Karakeep is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Capd is written in Swift under MIT. Karakeep has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Capd 2%. Karakeep was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (bookmark-manager, bookmarks), 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
| Karakeep | Capd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 51 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 1 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Karakeep if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Capd if
- You want the Capd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and Capd fits your workflow better
About Karakeep
Karakeep is a self hostable bookmark and content management application designed for users who collect links, notes, images, and PDFs across devices. It originated as Hoarder and evolved into a full featured tool for personal knowledge management, with strong emphasis on AI assisted organization and long term content preservation. Built with Next.js, it runs in the web browser and mobile apps, supporting both local and cloud hosted AI models.
read the full Karakeep overview →
About Capd
Capd is a private, native macOS application for capturing web pages, selected text, links, notes, and images, and then finding them again through full text search. It is written in Swift, released under the MIT License, and distributed as a notarized .dmg from GitHub releases or through a Homebrew tap. Within the macOS productivity ecosystem it occupies the same ground as bookmark managers and read later tools, but it stores everything in a local SQLite database and an assets folder on the user's own Mac rather than in a hosted account.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Karakeep or Capd more popular?
Karakeep has 29,110 GitHub stars and Capd has 51. Karakeep has the larger community by that measure.
Are Karakeep and Capd free?
Both are open source. Karakeep is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Capd under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Karakeep and Capd?
Karakeep is written in TypeScript and Capd in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Karakeep or Capd?
Choose Karakeep if you want the larger community (29,110 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Capd if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.