head to head · open source
Listmonk vs Observal
Listmonk has 24,124 GitHub stars, 2,742 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Observal has 4,537 stars, 1,141 forks, 201 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Listmonk leads on adoption by 432% (24,124 vs 4,537 stars). Listmonk is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; Observal is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Listmonk has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Observal 25%. Observal was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Listmonk | Observal | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Listmonk if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Observal if
- You want the Observal feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Observal fits your workflow better
About Listmonk
listmonk is a standalone, self hosted, newsletter and mailing list manager. It is fast, feature rich, and packed into a single binary. It uses a PostgreSQL database as its data store. Visit listmonk.app for more info. Check out the live demo . Installation Docker The latest image is available on DockerHub at listmonk/listmonk:latest . Download and use the sample docker compose.yml. Visit See installation docs Binary Download the latest release and extract the listmonk binary. ./listmonk new config to generate config.toml. Edit it. ./listmonk install to setup the Postgres DB (or upgrade to upgrade an existing DB…
read the full Listmonk overview →
About Observal
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read the full Observal overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Listmonk or Observal more popular?
Listmonk has 24,124 GitHub stars and Observal has 4,537. Listmonk has the larger community by that measure.
Are Listmonk and Observal free?
Both are open source. Listmonk is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Observal under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Listmonk and Observal?
Listmonk is written in Go and Observal 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, Listmonk or Observal?
Choose Listmonk if you want the larger community (24,124 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Observal if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.