head to head · open source
Lemmy vs deltachat-desktop
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars, 966 forks, 129 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. deltachat-desktop has 1,614 stars, 246 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lemmy leads on adoption by 805% (14,599 vs 1,614 stars). Lemmy is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; deltachat-desktop is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. Lemmy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, deltachat-desktop 15%. deltachat-desktop was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (chat), 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
| Lemmy | deltachat-desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 966 | ⑂ 246 |
| 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 deltachat-desktop if
- You want the deltachat-desktop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and deltachat-desktop fits your workflow better
About Lemmy
Lemmy is a link aggregator and forum platform for the Fediverse, written in Rust and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It supports communities where users subscribe to forums, post links and discussions, vote, and comment. Each server can operate independently while remaining federated through ActivityPub, so users on one server can interact with users and communities on other servers.
read the full Lemmy overview →
About deltachat-desktop
Delta Chat Desktop is the desktop application for delta.chat, an open source decentralized private messenger. The repository is written in TypeScript, licensed under GPL 3.0, and offers an Electron default, a browser edition, and a work in progress Tauri edition. Its public description presents it as a messenger with chat shared tools and games for desktop use.
read the full deltachat-desktop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lemmy or deltachat-desktop more popular?
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars and deltachat-desktop has 1,614. Lemmy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lemmy and deltachat-desktop free?
Both are open source. Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and deltachat-desktop under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lemmy and deltachat-desktop?
Lemmy is written in Rust and deltachat-desktop 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 deltachat-desktop?
Choose Lemmy if you want the larger community (14,599 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose deltachat-desktop if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.