head to head · open source
Lemmy vs sharer.js
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars, 966 forks, 129 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. sharer.js has 2,091 stars, 202 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Lemmy leads on adoption by 598% (14,599 vs 2,091 stars). Lemmy is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; sharer.js is written in JavaScript under MIT. Lemmy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, sharer.js 10%. 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 | sharer.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-07-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 966 | ⑂ 202 |
| 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 sharer.js if
- You want the sharer.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and sharer.js 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 sharer.js
sharer.js is a JavaScript library for creating custom social share buttons on DOM elements for a website. It lives in the Community & Social / Social Networking ecosystem, and its purpose is to let a site owner add share components without using jQuery. The project is described as very tiny, with no dependencies, and it is released under the MIT license. The repository metadata records 2091 stars, 202 forks, one open issue, an 11 year age, and a last push on 2026 07 21.
read the full sharer.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lemmy or sharer.js more popular?
Lemmy has 14,599 GitHub stars and sharer.js has 2,091. Lemmy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lemmy and sharer.js free?
Both are open source. Lemmy is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and sharer.js under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lemmy and sharer.js?
Lemmy is written in Rust and sharer.js 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 sharer.js?
Choose Lemmy if you want the larger community (14,599 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose sharer.js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.