head to head · open source
Karakeep vs Wallabag
Karakeep has 30,248 GitHub stars, 1,618 forks, 726 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Wallabag has 13,040 stars, 908 forks, 764 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Karakeep leads on adoption by 132% (30,248 vs 13,040 stars). Karakeep is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Wallabag is written in PHP under MIT. Karakeep has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Wallabag 7%. Wallabag was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (read-it-later, self-hosted), 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 | Wallabag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 13K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 908 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Karakeep if
- You weight community size — 30K 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 Wallabag if
- You want the Wallabag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Wallabag fits your workflow better
About Karakeep
Karakeep (previously Hoarder) is a self hostable bookmark everything app with a touch of AI for the data hoarders out there. Features Bookmark links, take simple notes and store images and pdfs. Automatic fetching for link titles, descriptions and images. Sort your bookmarks into lists. Collaborate with others on the same list. Full text & semantic search of all the content stored. LLM based automatic tagging and summarization. With supports for local models using ollama! LLM Agents (e.g. OpenClaw, Hermes) friendly with powerful CLI, and official skills. Rule based engine for customized management. OCR for…
read the full Karakeep overview →
About Wallabag
wallabag [!IMPORTANT] The name of this project is wallabag — all lowercase, always. Not "Wallabag", not "WallaBag", not any other variation. Just plain, humble, all lowercase wallabag 😉 wallabag is a web application allowing you to save web pages for later reading. Click, save and read it when you want. It extracts content so that you won't be distracted by pop ups and cie. You can install it on your own server, or you can create an account on wallabag.it. Website: wallabag.org Android app: wallabag/android app iOS app: wallabag/ios app Browser extension: wallabag/wallabagger GNOME (Linux) app: read it later…
read the full Wallabag overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Karakeep or Wallabag more popular?
Karakeep has 30,248 GitHub stars and Wallabag has 13,040. Karakeep has the larger community by that measure.
Are Karakeep and Wallabag free?
Both are open source. Karakeep is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Wallabag under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Karakeep and Wallabag?
Karakeep is written in TypeScript and Wallabag 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, Karakeep or Wallabag?
Choose Karakeep if you want the larger community (30,248 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Wallabag if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.