head to head · open source
novu vs hanko
novu has 40,002 GitHub stars, 4,494 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hanko has 9,029 stars, 1,016 forks, 64 open issues and last shipped yesterday. novu leads on adoption by 343% (40,002 vs 9,029 stars). novu is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; hanko is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. novu has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, hanko 11%. novu 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 | ★ 9.0K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| 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 Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and hanko fits your workflow better
About novu
Novu is an open source communication infrastructure platform for building and managing multi channel notifications in products and connecting them to AI agents. It lives in the Node.js/TypeScript ecosystem and targets developers who need to send and receive messages across email, SMS, push, in app inbox, chat, and collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
About hanko
Hanko is an open source authentication and user management backend, written in Go, that gives teams a self hostable or fully managed alternative to Auth0, Clerk, WorkOS and Stytch for adding passwords, passkeys, MFA, social login and enterprise SSO to an application.
read the full hanko overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is novu or hanko more popular?
novu has 40,002 GitHub stars and hanko has 9,029. novu has the larger community by that measure.
Are novu and hanko free?
Neither novu nor hanko 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 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 (40,002 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose hanko if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.