head to head · open source
maigret vs Lemmy
maigret has 37,735 GitHub stars, 2,959 forks, 62 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lemmy has 14,599 stars, 966 forks, 129 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. maigret leads on adoption by 158% (37,735 vs 14,599 stars). maigret is written in Python under MIT; Lemmy is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. maigret has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Lemmy 7%. maigret 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
| maigret | Lemmy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 966 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick maigret if
- You weight community size — 38K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Lemmy if
- You want the Lemmy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Lemmy fits your workflow better
About maigret
Maigret is an open source Python OSINT tool that builds a dossier on a person from a username alone, checking for accounts across more than 3,000 sites without requiring API keys — it is aimed at OSINT analysts, pentesters, infosec teams, and investigators.
read the full maigret overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is maigret or Lemmy more popular?
maigret has 37,735 GitHub stars and Lemmy has 14,599. maigret has the larger community by that measure.
Are maigret and Lemmy free?
Both are open source. maigret is licensed under MIT and Lemmy under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between maigret and Lemmy?
maigret is written in Python and Lemmy in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, maigret or Lemmy?
Choose maigret if you want the larger community (37,735 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Lemmy if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.