head to head · open source
lerna vs feather
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars, 2,265 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped yesterday. feather has 607 stars, 54 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lerna leads on adoption by 5,840% (36,053 vs 607 stars). lerna is written in TypeScript under MIT; feather is written in Swift under MIT. lerna has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, feather 9%. feather was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (publishing), 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
| lerna | feather | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 607 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 54 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lerna if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick feather if
- You want the feather feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and feather fits your workflow better
About lerna
Lerna is a fast, modern build system for managing and publishing multiple JavaScript/TypeScript packages from the same repository, aimed at teams that maintain monorepos and publish packages to npm.
read the full lerna overview →
About feather
Feather is a Swift based content management system for developers and publishing teams who want to run a blog or content site on their own infrastructure rather than through a hosted service.
read the full feather overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lerna or feather more popular?
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars and feather has 607. lerna has the larger community by that measure.
Are lerna and feather free?
Both are open source. lerna is licensed under MIT and feather under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lerna and feather?
lerna is written in TypeScript and feather in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lerna or feather?
Choose lerna if you want the larger community (36,053 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose feather if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.