head to head · open source
owncast vs writefreely
owncast has 11,644 GitHub stars, 1,195 forks, 165 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. writefreely has 5,283 stars, 408 forks, 108 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. owncast leads on adoption by 120% (11,644 vs 5,283 stars). owncast is written in Go under MIT; writefreely is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. owncast has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, writefreely 8%. writefreely was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (activitypub, federation), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| owncast | writefreely | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 408 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick owncast if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick writefreely if
- You want the writefreely feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and writefreely fits your workflow better
About owncast
Take control over your content and stream it yourself. Explore the docs » View Demo · FAQ · Report Bug · Report Security Issue Table of Contents 📒 About the Project 🚀 Getting Started 👨💻 Use with your broadcasting software 🛠 Building from source 🚨 Important note about source code and the develop branch 🗄️ Backend ⚛️ Frontend 👏 Contributing 💵 Donors Security 📝 License Contact About The Project Owncast is an open source, self hosted, decentralized, single user live video streaming and chat server for running your own live streams similar in style to the large mainstream options. It offers complete…
read the full owncast overview →
About writefreely
WriteFreely is a clean, minimalist publishing platform made for writers. Start a blog, share knowledge within your organization, or build a community around the shared act of writing. Try the writing experience Find an instance Features Made for writing Built on a plain, auto saving editor, WriteFreely gives you a distraction free writing environment. Once published, your words are front and center, and easy to read. A connected community Start writing together, publicly or privately. Connect with other communities, whether running WriteFreely, Plume, or other ActivityPub powered software. And bring members on…
read the full writefreely overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is owncast or writefreely more popular?
owncast has 11,644 GitHub stars and writefreely has 5,283. owncast has the larger community by that measure.
Are owncast and writefreely free?
Both are open source. owncast is licensed under MIT and writefreely under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between owncast and writefreely?
owncast is written in Go and writefreely 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, owncast or writefreely?
Choose owncast if you want the larger community (11,644 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose writefreely if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.