head to head · open source
nats-server vs Sequin
nats-server has 20,745 GitHub stars, 1,962 forks, 472 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sequin has 2,203 stars, 149 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. nats-server leads on adoption by 842% (20,745 vs 2,203 stars). nats-server is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Sequin is written in Elixir under MIT. nats-server has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Sequin 7%. nats-server 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
| nats-server | Sequin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Elixir |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-02-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 149 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nats-server if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Sequin if
- You want the Sequin feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You evaluated both and Sequin fits your workflow better
About nats-server
nats server is the Go based, Apache 2.0 licensed server at the heart of NATS, a simple, secure and performant communications system for digital systems, services and devices, aimed at teams building distributed systems, microservices, and cloud, edge or connected vehicle deployments that need messaging without running heavyweight broker infrastructure.
read the full nats-server overview →
About Sequin
Sequin is an open source change data capture platform for Postgres. It lives in the Postgres ecosystem and reads database changes, then sends those changes to streams, queues, search indexes, and other endpoints. The project is written in Elixir and released under the MIT license.
read the full Sequin overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nats-server or Sequin more popular?
nats-server has 20,745 GitHub stars and Sequin has 2,203. nats-server has the larger community by that measure.
Are nats-server and Sequin free?
Both are open source. nats-server is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Sequin under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nats-server and Sequin?
nats-server is written in Go and Sequin in Elixir. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, nats-server or Sequin?
Choose nats-server if you want the larger community (20,745 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Sequin if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.