head to head · open source
Lemmy vs Nora
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars, 966 forks, 129 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Nora has 1,092 stars, 36 forks, 61 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Lemmy leads on adoption by 1,237% (14,599 vs 1,092 stars). Lemmy is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; Nora is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Lemmy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Nora 3%. Lemmy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (reddit), 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 | Nora | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 966 | ⑂ 36 |
| 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 Nora if
- You want the Nora feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Nora 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 Nora
Nora is an SNS browser for Android, iOS, and desktop that pulls Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Threads, X, and other social networks into a single ad free app, aimed at people who want to read and post across several networks without installing a separate client for each one.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lemmy or Nora more popular?
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars and Nora has 1,092. Lemmy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lemmy and Nora free?
Both are open source. Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Nora under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lemmy and Nora?
Lemmy is written in Rust and Nora 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 Nora?
Choose Lemmy if you want the larger community (14,599 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Nora if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.