head to head · open source
OpenViking vs gollum
OpenViking has 41,383 GitHub stars, 3,362 forks, 999 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gollum has 14,338 stars, 1,560 forks, 91 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. OpenViking leads on adoption by 189% (41,383 vs 14,338 stars). OpenViking is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; gollum is written in Ruby under MIT. OpenViking has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, gollum 11%. OpenViking 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| OpenViking | gollum | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 14K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-11-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenViking if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gollum if
- You want the gollum feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and gollum fits your workflow better
About OpenViking
The Context Database for AI Agents English / 中文 / 日本語 Website · Live Demo · GitHub · Issues · Docs · Blog Lark · WeChat · Discord · X What is OpenViking OpenViking is an open source context database for AI agents — one filesystem for everything an agent knows: knowledge, memory, and skills. Most agent memory is a black box: text goes in, embeddings come out, and nobody can see what was actually stored. OpenViking organizes context as a virtual filesystem under viking:// instead. Agents navigate it like files — ls , tree , read , write , grep — and you can open any directory to inspect and edit what your agent…
read the full OpenViking overview →
About gollum
gollum A git based Wiki Gollum is a simple wiki system built on top of Git. A Gollum Wiki is simply a git repository of a specific nature: A Gollum repository's contents are human editable text or markup files. Pages may be organized into directories any way you choose. Other content can also be included, for example images, PDFs and headers/footers for your pages. Gollum pages: May be written in a variety of markups. Can be edited with your favourite editor (changes will be visible after committing) or with the built in web interface. Can be displayed in all versions, reverted, etc. Gollum strives to be…
read the full gollum overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Documentation & Knowledge Base projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Documentation & Knowledge Base field.
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenViking or gollum more popular?
OpenViking has 41,383 GitHub stars and gollum has 14,338. OpenViking has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenViking and gollum free?
Both are open source. OpenViking is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and gollum under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenViking and gollum?
OpenViking is written in Python and gollum in Ruby. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenViking or gollum?
Choose OpenViking if you want the larger community (41,383 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose gollum if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.