head to head · open source
Linkwarden vs Wallabag
Linkwarden has 19,787 GitHub stars, 845 forks, 662 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Wallabag has 12,969 stars, 896 forks, 764 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Linkwarden leads on adoption by 53% (19,787 vs 12,969 stars). Linkwarden is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Wallabag is written in PHP under MIT. Linkwarden has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Wallabag 7%. Wallabag was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (read-it-later, self-hosted), 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
| Linkwarden | Wallabag | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 13K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 845 | ⑂ 896 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Linkwarden if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Wallabag if
- You want the Wallabag feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Wallabag fits your workflow better
About Linkwarden
Linkwarden is an open source, self hosted collaborative bookmark manager written in TypeScript, with a Next.js web interface and React Native mobile applications. It lives in the self hosted productivity and content management ecosystem, where users need a durable place to collect webpages, articles, and links instead of leaving them scattered across browser bookmarks, notes, and feeds.
read the full Linkwarden overview →
About Wallabag
wallabag is a self hosted web application for saving web pages and reading them later. It lives in the PHP and Symfony ecosystem, is released under the MIT license, and presents itself as a read it later tool for users who want to keep their saved articles on their own server. The project also points to wallabag.it as a hosted account option for people who do not want to run the application themselves.
read the full Wallabag overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Linkwarden or Wallabag more popular?
Linkwarden has 19,787 GitHub stars and Wallabag has 12,969. Linkwarden has the larger community by that measure.
Are Linkwarden and Wallabag free?
Both are open source. Linkwarden is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Wallabag under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Linkwarden and Wallabag?
Linkwarden is written in TypeScript and Wallabag in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Linkwarden or Wallabag?
Choose Linkwarden if you want the larger community (19,787 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Wallabag if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.