head to head · open source
metrics vs effect
metrics has 17,202 GitHub stars, 2,275 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. effect has 16,097 stars, 747 forks, 253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. metrics leads on adoption by 7% (17,202 vs 16,097 stars). metrics is written in JavaScript under MIT; effect is written in TypeScript under MIT. metrics has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, effect 5%. effect was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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
| metrics | effect | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 16K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-05-29 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 747 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick metrics if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick effect if
- You want the effect feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and effect fits your workflow better
About metrics
Metrics is an infographics generator for GitHub accounts, published under the MIT license and written in JavaScript. It lives in the GitHub ecosystem as a GitHub Action and as a hosted web service, and it produces statistics about a user, an organization, or a repository. The output is rendered as SVG, Markdown, PDF, or JSON, which means the same generated figures can be embedded in a profile readme, attached to a blog post, or consumed by another tool.
read the full metrics overview →
About effect
Effect is a TypeScript library for building robust, maintainable, type safe, and production grade applications. It lives in the TypeScript and JavaScript ecosystem, distributed as the core effect package alongside a monorepo of integration packages that extend it. The project is MIT licensed, has been developed for roughly seven years, and currently ships Effect V4 as a release candidate, with the main branch holding v4 development and the v3 branch retaining the previous line.
read the full effect overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is metrics or effect more popular?
metrics has 17,202 GitHub stars and effect has 16,097. metrics has the larger community by that measure.
Are metrics and effect free?
Both are open source. metrics is licensed under MIT and effect under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between metrics and effect?
metrics is written in JavaScript and effect in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, metrics or effect?
Choose metrics if you want the larger community (17,202 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose effect if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.