head to head · open source
symphony vs kun-galgame-forum
symphony has 2,943 GitHub stars, 507 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. kun-galgame-forum has 1,986 stars, 76 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. symphony leads on adoption by 48% (2,943 vs 1,986 stars). symphony is written in Java under AGPL-3.0; kun-galgame-forum is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. symphony has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, kun-galgame-forum 4%. kun-galgame-forum was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (forum), 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
| symphony | kun-galgame-forum | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.9K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-09 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 507 | ⑂ 76 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick symphony if
- You weight community size — 2.9K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick kun-galgame-forum if
- You want the kun-galgame-forum feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kun-galgame-forum fits your workflow better
About symphony
Symphony is a community platform implemented in Java under the AGPL 3.0 license. It combines a discussion forum, a Q&A site, a social network with sharing, friends, and games, and blog like publishing in one system. The project lives in the Java ecosystem and is published through the B3log website and official discussion area.
read the full symphony overview →
About kun-galgame-forum
kun galgame forum is an open source forum application for visual novel and galgame communities. It is built as a pnpm workspace monorepo with a Go Fiber v3 BFF and REST API, a Nuxt 4 SSR frontend, and PostgreSQL. The project is licensed under AGPL 3.0 and is a downstream application of nextmoe infra, which supplies identity and shared services.
read the full kun-galgame-forum overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is symphony or kun-galgame-forum more popular?
symphony has 2,943 GitHub stars and kun-galgame-forum has 1,986. symphony has the larger community by that measure.
Are symphony and kun-galgame-forum free?
Both are open source. symphony is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and kun-galgame-forum under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between symphony and kun-galgame-forum?
symphony is written in Java and kun-galgame-forum in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, symphony or kun-galgame-forum?
Choose symphony if you want the larger community (2,943 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kun-galgame-forum if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.