head to head · open source
nono vs toolhive
nono has 4,140 GitHub stars, 274 forks, 201 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. toolhive has 2,193 stars, 300 forks, 369 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nono leads on adoption by 89% (4,140 vs 2,193 stars). nono is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; toolhive is written in Go under Apache-2.0. nono has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, toolhive 14%. toolhive was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai-security, mcp, mcp-security, security), 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
| nono | toolhive | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.1K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 274 | ⑂ 300 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nono if
- You weight community size — 4.1K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick toolhive if
- You want the toolhive feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and toolhive fits your workflow better
About nono
nono is a Rust project for secure multiplexed execution paths for AI agents. It lives in AI security and privacy. It is built by the team that brought Sigstore. It aims to run agents with zero trust, zero setup, and zero latency.
About toolhive
ToolHive is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed platform written in Go for running and managing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. It lives in the AI and machine learning ecosystem, specifically MCP tooling and AI security and privacy. The project addresses the problem of exposing MCP servers to AI coding assistants and enterprise clients without broad local access or unmanaged behavior.
read the full toolhive overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nono or toolhive more popular?
nono has 4,140 GitHub stars and toolhive has 2,193. nono has the larger community by that measure.
Are nono and toolhive free?
Both are open source. nono is licensed under Apache-2.0 and toolhive under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nono and toolhive?
nono is written in Rust and toolhive in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, nono or toolhive?
Choose nono if you want the larger community (4,140 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose toolhive if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.