head to head · open source
Lemmy vs Reddit-Enhancement-Suite
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars, 966 forks, 129 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Reddit-Enhancement-Suite has 4,519 stars, 891 forks, 683 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Lemmy leads on adoption by 223% (14,599 vs 4,519 stars). Lemmy is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; Reddit-Enhancement-Suite is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. Lemmy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Reddit-Enhancement-Suite 20%. 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 | Reddit-Enhancement-Suite | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 966 | ⑂ 891 |
| 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 Reddit-Enhancement-Suite if
- You want the Reddit-Enhancement-Suite feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite 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 Reddit-Enhancement-Suite
Reddit Enhancement Suite is a browser extension suite that adds modules to the Reddit browsing experience. It lives in the browser extension ecosystem, with builds targeting Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, and it is distributed as a GPL 3.0 licensed JavaScript project. Development happens in the open on GitHub under the honestbleeps organisation, where the README, the wiki, and the changelog directory serve as the primary documentation surfaces.
read the full Reddit-Enhancement-Suite overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lemmy or Reddit-Enhancement-Suite more popular?
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite has 4,519. Lemmy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lemmy and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite free?
Both are open source. Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lemmy and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite?
Lemmy is written in Rust and Reddit-Enhancement-Suite in JavaScript. 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 Reddit-Enhancement-Suite?
Choose Lemmy if you want the larger community (14,599 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Reddit-Enhancement-Suite if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.