head to head · open source
realtime vs OpenContracts
realtime has 7,675 GitHub stars, 479 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped today. OpenContracts has 1,534 stars, 199 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. realtime leads on adoption by 400% (7,675 vs 1,534 stars). realtime is written in Elixir under Apache-2.0; OpenContracts is written in Python under MIT. realtime has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, OpenContracts 13%. realtime 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
| realtime | OpenContracts | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.7K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Elixir | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 479 | ⑂ 199 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick realtime if
- You weight community size — 7.7K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenContracts if
- You want the OpenContracts feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and OpenContracts fits your workflow better
About realtime
Supabase Realtime Send ephemeral messages, track and synchronize shared state, and listen to Postgres changes all over WebSockets. Examples · Request Features · Report Bugs Status This repository focuses on version 2 but you can still access the previous version's code and Docker image. For the latest Docker images go to The codebase is under heavy development and the documentation is constantly evolving. Give it a try and let us know what you think by creating an issue. Watch releases of this repo to get notified of updates. And give us a star if you like it! Overview What is this? This is a server built with…
read the full realtime overview →
About OpenContracts
OpenContracts (Demo) Open source document intelligence you can build on. Point OpenContracts at a repository of documents and get a programmable citation graph — human annotation, structured extraction, AI agents, and a built in MCP server, all behind one API. Self hosted, MIT licensed, and built for teams working at scale. Same graph, three surfaces: a GraphQL + REST API for your apps, a Model Context Protocol server for your agents, and a React UI for your team. From documents to a citation graph — in about a minute Create a corpus, drop in your documents, and click Set up . That one click installs the…
read the full OpenContracts overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is realtime or OpenContracts more popular?
realtime has 7,675 GitHub stars and OpenContracts has 1,534. realtime has the larger community by that measure.
Are realtime and OpenContracts free?
Both are open source. realtime is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenContracts under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between realtime and OpenContracts?
realtime is written in Elixir and OpenContracts 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, realtime or OpenContracts?
Choose realtime if you want the larger community (7,675 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenContracts if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.