head to head · open source
neko vs BookWyrm
neko has 22,315 GitHub stars, 1,628 forks, 151 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. BookWyrm has 2,779 stars, 336 forks, 418 open issues and last shipped yesterday. neko leads on adoption by 703% (22,315 vs 2,779 stars). neko is written in Go under Apache-2.0; BookWyrm is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. neko has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, BookWyrm 12%. BookWyrm 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
| neko | BookWyrm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 336 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick neko if
- You weight community size — 22K 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 BookWyrm if
- You want the BookWyrm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and BookWyrm fits your workflow better
About neko
Neko is a self hosted virtual browser that runs inside a Docker container and streams its desktop to several people at once over WebRTC, built for developers testing web applications, privacy conscious users, and teams who want to browse, watch or present together in one shared session.
About BookWyrm
BookWyrm is a social reading network for tracking books, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next. It lives in the ActivityPub ecosystem, so users can interact with other BookWyrm instances and with ActivityPub services such as Mastodon and Pleroma. The project is a Python web application using Django, PostgreSQL, Redis, Celery, and ActivityPub.
read the full BookWyrm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is neko or BookWyrm more popular?
neko has 22,315 GitHub stars and BookWyrm has 2,779. neko has the larger community by that measure.
Are neko and BookWyrm free?
Both are open source. neko is licensed under Apache-2.0, and BookWyrm has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between neko and BookWyrm?
neko is written in Go and BookWyrm 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, neko or BookWyrm?
Choose neko if you want the larger community (22,315 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose BookWyrm if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.