head to head · open source
lerna vs parsifal
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars, 2,265 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped yesterday. parsifal has 517 stars, 189 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. lerna leads on adoption by 6,874% (36,053 vs 517 stars). lerna is written in TypeScript under MIT; parsifal is written in Python under MIT. lerna has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, parsifal 37%. lerna 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 | parsifal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 517 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 189 |
| 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 parsifal if
- You want the parsifal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and parsifal 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 parsifal
Parsifal is a free, MIT licensed web application that supports researchers in planning, conducting, and reporting systematic literature reviews, and it is aimed at academics, research groups, and reviewers who need to manage that process in software rather than by hand.
read the full parsifal overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lerna or parsifal more popular?
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars and parsifal has 517. lerna has the larger community by that measure.
Are lerna and parsifal free?
Both are open source. lerna is licensed under MIT and parsifal under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lerna and parsifal?
lerna is written in TypeScript and parsifal in Python. 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 parsifal?
Choose lerna if you want the larger community (36,053 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose parsifal if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.