head to head · open source
Nuclear vs BookWyrm
Nuclear has 18,480 GitHub stars, 1,327 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped today. BookWyrm has 2,780 stars, 338 forks, 418 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Nuclear leads on adoption by 565% (18,480 vs 2,780 stars). Nuclear is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; BookWyrm is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. Nuclear has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, BookWyrm 12%. Nuclear 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
| Nuclear | BookWyrm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 338 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Nuclear if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 Nuclear
Nuclear is a free, open source music player for Windows, macOS, and Linux that streams music from multiple sources without ads or tracking. The project lives in the desktop music player ecosystem and is written primarily in TypeScript, with a Tauri application built from Rust and React. It is distributed under the AGPL 3.0 license.
read the full Nuclear overview →
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 Nuclear or BookWyrm more popular?
Nuclear has 18,480 GitHub stars and BookWyrm has 2,780. Nuclear has the larger community by that measure.
Are Nuclear and BookWyrm free?
Both are open source. Nuclear is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and BookWyrm has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Nuclear and BookWyrm?
Nuclear is written in TypeScript 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, Nuclear or BookWyrm?
Choose Nuclear if you want the larger community (18,480 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose BookWyrm if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.