head to head · open source
Lemmy vs databag
Lemmy has 14,659 GitHub stars, 973 forks, 129 open issues and last shipped yesterday. databag has 1,510 stars, 100 forks, 59 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. Lemmy leads on adoption by 871% (14,659 vs 1,510 stars). Lemmy is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; databag is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Lemmy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, databag 7%. Lemmy 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
| Lemmy | databag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-06-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 973 | ⑂ 100 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lemmy if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick databag if
- You want the databag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and databag fits your workflow better
About Lemmy
English Español Русский 汉语 漢語 日本語 Lemmy A link aggregator and forum for the fediverse. Join Lemmy · Documentation · Matrix Chat · Report Bug · Request Feature · Releases · Code of Conduct About The Project Lemmy is similar to sites like Reddit, Lobste.rs, or Hacker News: you subscribe to forums you're interested in, post links and discussions, then vote, and comment on them. Behind the scenes, it is very different; anyone can easily run a server, and all these servers are federated (think email), and connected to the same universe, called the Fediverse. For a link aggregator, this means a user registered on one…
read the full Lemmy overview →
About databag
Databag A federated messenger for self hosting Design Overview Mobile and Browser App Screens Databag is designed for efficiency, consuming minimal hosting resources. Notable features include: Decentralized (direct communication between app and server node) Federated (accounts on different nodes can communicate) Public Private key based identity (not bound to any blockchain or hosting domain) End to End encryption (the hosting admin cannot view topics if sealed) Audio and Video Calls (nat traversal requires separate relay server) Topic based threads (messages organized by topic not contacts) Unlimited…
read the full databag overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lemmy or databag more popular?
Lemmy has 14,659 GitHub stars and databag has 1,510. Lemmy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lemmy and databag free?
Both are open source. Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and databag under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lemmy and databag?
Lemmy is written in Rust and databag in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Lemmy or databag?
Choose Lemmy if you want the larger community (14,659 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose databag if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.