head to head · open source
lerna vs sile
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars, 2,265 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sile has 1,784 stars, 106 forks, 287 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. lerna leads on adoption by 1,921% (36,053 vs 1,784 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%. 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 | sile | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Lua |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 106 |
| 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
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 sile
SILE is an open source typesetting system for producing printed documents and PDF files. It lives in the Lua, publishing, and typesetting ecosystem, and its category is Content & Publishing / Publishing. The engine is written from the ground up, uses Lua, and borrows some concepts and algorithms from TeX while taking ideas from graphical systems such as InDesign.
More in Content & Publishing
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Frequently asked questions
Is lerna or sile more popular?
lerna has 36,053 GitHub stars and sile has 1,784. 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 (36,053 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sile if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.