head to head · open source
novu vs cap
novu has 40,249 GitHub stars, 4,522 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cap has 24,271 stars, 2,234 forks, 339 open issues and last shipped yesterday. novu leads on adoption by 66% (40,249 vs 24,271 stars). novu is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; cap is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. novu has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, cap 9%. cap was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (react), 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
| novu | cap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 24K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.5K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick novu if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cap if
- You want the cap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and cap fits your workflow better
About novu
The open source communication infrastructure for agents and products One API and one unified conversation model to connect your products and your agents to every channel your users live on — Inbox, Email, SMS, Push, Chat, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, and more. Learn More » Report a bug · Docs · Website · Join our Discord · Changelog · Roadmap · X · Contact us Software is becoming more conversational, and user expectations are rising with it. People no longer want static, irrelevant notifications they glance at and forget, they want to engage, ask questions, and go deeper. Instead of a one way report dropped…
About cap
Cap Beautiful, shareable screen recordings. Open source, fast, and built for teams that want to own their data. Website Download Docs Pricing Discord Cap is the open source alternative to Loom. It gives you fast screen recording, polished local editing, instant share links, comments, transcripts, analytics, team workspaces, custom domains, custom S3 storage, and full self hosting when you need complete control. Use Cap for product demos, bug reports, onboarding, tutorials, design reviews, engineering walkthroughs, async standups, client updates, and any moment where showing the work is faster than scheduling…
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Frequently asked questions
Is novu or cap more popular?
novu has 40,249 GitHub stars and cap has 24,271. novu has the larger community by that measure.
Are novu and cap free?
Neither novu nor cap declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between novu and cap?
novu is written in TypeScript and cap in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, novu or cap?
Choose novu if you want the larger community (40,249 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose cap if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.