head to head · open source
lerna vs sile
lerna has 36,041 GitHub stars, 2,269 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. sile has 1,791 stars, 109 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. lerna leads on adoption by 1,912% (36,041 vs 1,791 stars). lerna is written in TypeScript under MIT; sile is written in Lua under MIT. lerna has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, sile 6%. sile 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 | sile | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 109 |
| 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 sile if
- You want the sile feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Lua
- You evaluated both and sile fits your workflow better
About lerna
Important note: this project changed stewardship to Nx! Your favorite tool is alive and well: Lerna is a fast, modern build system for managing and publishing multiple JavaScript/TypeScript packages from the same repository. A few links to help you get started: lerna.js.org: Documentation, Guides, Interactive Tutorials Getting Started Features Official Nx and Lerna YouTube Channel Blog Posts About Lerna and Nx Engage with the Core Team and the Community Follow Lerna on Twitter Community Discord, forum channel Want to help? If you want to file a bug or submit a PR, read up on our guidelines for contributing Core…
read the full lerna overview →
About sile
What is SILE? SILE is a [typesetting][typesetting] system; its job is to produce beautiful printed documents. Conceptually, SILE is similar to [TeX][tex]—from which it borrows some concepts and algorithms—but the similarities end there. Rather than being a derivative of the TeX family SILE is a new typesetting and layout engine written from the ground up using modern technologies and borrowing some ideas from graphical systems such as [InDesign][indesign]. Where does it run? SILE can be downloaded & installed to your system or run remotely as a CI job. What can I do with SILE (that I can’t do with TeX)? First…
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Frequently asked questions
Is lerna or sile more popular?
lerna has 36,041 GitHub stars and sile has 1,791. lerna has the larger community by that measure.
Are lerna and sile free?
Both are open source. lerna is licensed under MIT and sile under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lerna and sile?
lerna is written in TypeScript and sile in Lua. 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 sile?
Choose lerna if you want the larger community (36,041 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sile if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.