head to head · open source
novu vs hanko
novu has 40,249 GitHub stars, 4,522 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hanko has 9,060 stars, 1,023 forks, 64 open issues and last shipped yesterday. novu leads on adoption by 344% (40,249 vs 9,060 stars). novu is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; hanko is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. novu has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, hanko 11%. hanko 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
| novu | hanko | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 9.1K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.5K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 hanko if
- You want the hanko feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and hanko 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 hanko
About Hanko Hanko is an open source authentication and user management solution that is easy to integrate, framework agnostic, and built on privacy first principles like data minimalism and phishing resistance. Supports all modern authentication methods: passwords, MFA, passkeys, social logins, and SAML SSO Flexible configuration options, including passkey only, OAuth only, and user deletable passwords Easy integration with Hanko Elements web components A robust API that handles all authentication and onboarding flow states, enabling fast, reliable custom frontend implementations API first, lightweight, cloud…
read the full hanko overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is novu or hanko more popular?
novu has 40,249 GitHub stars and hanko has 9,060. novu has the larger community by that measure.
Are novu and hanko free?
Both are open source. novu has no licence declared in this registry, and hanko is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between novu and hanko?
novu is written in TypeScript and hanko 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, novu or hanko?
Choose novu if you want the larger community (40,249 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose hanko if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.