head to head · open source
OpenBB vs Formance
OpenBB has 73,153 GitHub stars, 7,565 forks, 117 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Formance has 525 stars, 67 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. OpenBB leads on adoption by 13,834% (73,153 vs 525 stars). OpenBB is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Formance is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. OpenBB has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Formance 13%. OpenBB 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
| OpenBB | Formance | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 525 |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.6K | ⑂ 67 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenBB if
- You weight community size — 73K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Formance if
- You want the Formance feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Formance fits your workflow better
About OpenBB
OpenBB is an open source data platform for investment professionals, built as the Open Data Platform (ODP) and extended by the OpenBB Workspace UI. It lives in the quantitative finance and AI agent ecosystem, integrating equity, crypto, derivatives, fixed income, economics, and options data from proprietary, licensed, and public sources.
read the full OpenBB overview →
About Formance
Formance is an open source, modular developer platform written in Go for building and operating complex money flows of any size and shape, aimed at fintech engineers and platform teams who need to record internal financial transactions and move money without assembling that infrastructure from scratch.
read the full Formance overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenBB or Formance more popular?
OpenBB has 73,153 GitHub stars and Formance has 525. OpenBB has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenBB and Formance free?
Neither OpenBB nor Formance 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 OpenBB and Formance?
OpenBB is written in Python and Formance 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, OpenBB or Formance?
Choose OpenBB if you want the larger community (73,153 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Formance if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.