head to head · open source
Listmonk vs Shlink
Listmonk has 23,471 GitHub stars, 2,604 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Shlink has 5,293 stars, 413 forks, 22 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Listmonk leads on adoption by 343% (23,471 vs 5,293 stars). Listmonk is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; Shlink is written in PHP under MIT. Listmonk has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Shlink 8%. Listmonk 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Listmonk | Shlink | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 413 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Listmonk if
- You weight community size — 23K 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 Shlink if
- You want the Shlink feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Shlink fits your workflow better
About Listmonk
Listmonk is a standalone, self hosted newsletter and mailing list manager in the open source business software and marketing customer engagement ecosystem. It packages campaign management, subscriber management, and email delivery controls into a single binary application with a modern dashboard, and it uses PostgreSQL as its data store.
read the full Listmonk overview →
About Shlink
Shlink is a self hosted URL shortener written in PHP, published under the MIT license, and maintained in the Shlink ecosystem that includes the shlink.io site and accompanying documentation. It runs as a service that serves shortened links under a domain chosen by the operator, rather than under a domain controlled by a third party. The project is built with the Laminas and Mezzio frameworks and exposes its functionality through a REST API, which is how clients and integrations drive it programmatically.
read the full Shlink overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Marketing & Customer Engagement projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Marketing & Customer Engagement field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Listmonk or Shlink more popular?
Listmonk has 23,471 GitHub stars and Shlink has 5,293. Listmonk has the larger community by that measure.
Are Listmonk and Shlink free?
Both are open source. Listmonk is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Shlink under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Listmonk and Shlink?
Listmonk is written in Go and Shlink 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, Listmonk or Shlink?
Choose Listmonk if you want the larger community (23,471 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Shlink if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.