head to head · open source
Lemmy vs hackertab.dev
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars, 966 forks, 129 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. hackertab.dev has 772 stars, 95 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. Lemmy leads on adoption by 1,791% (14,599 vs 772 stars). Lemmy is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; hackertab.dev is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Lemmy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, hackertab.dev 12%. 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 | hackertab.dev | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 772 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 966 | ⑂ 95 |
| 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 hackertab.dev if
- You want the hackertab.dev 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 hackertab.dev 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 hackertab.dev
Hackertab.dev is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, written in TypeScript and licensed under Apache 2.0. It lives in the browser extension ecosystem and is categorized as a community and social networking tool. It changes the default new tab page into a personalized feed for developer news, tools, jobs, and events.
read the full hackertab.dev overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lemmy or hackertab.dev more popular?
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars and hackertab.dev has 772. Lemmy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lemmy and hackertab.dev free?
Both are open source. Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and hackertab.dev under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lemmy and hackertab.dev?
Lemmy is written in Rust and hackertab.dev 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 hackertab.dev?
Choose Lemmy if you want the larger community (14,599 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose hackertab.dev if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.