head to head · open source
Flarum vs paopao-ce
Flarum has 16,441 GitHub stars, 1,676 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 25 days ago. paopao-ce has 4,501 stars, 648 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Flarum leads on adoption by 265% (16,441 vs 4,501 stars). Flarum is written in PHP under MIT; paopao-ce is written in Go under MIT. Flarum has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, paopao-ce 14%. Flarum was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (forum), 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
| Flarum | paopao-ce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-09 | 2026-08-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 648 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Flarum if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick paopao-ce if
- You want the paopao-ce feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and paopao-ce fits your workflow better
About Flarum
About Flarum Flarum is a delightfully simple discussion platform for your website. It's fast and easy to use, with all the features you need to run a successful community. It is designed to be: Fast and simple. No clutter, no bloat, no complex dependencies. Flarum is built with PHP so it’s quick and easy to deploy. The interface is powered by Mithril, a performant JavaScript framework with a tiny footprint. Beautiful and responsive. This is forum software for humans. Flarum is carefully designed to be consistent and intuitive across platforms, out of the box. Powerful and extensible. Customize, extend, and…
read the full Flarum overview →
About paopao-ce
PaoPao An open source micro community platform built with Go and Vue. Designed for self hosted social products, community experiments, and customizable deployments. 简体中文 · Live Demo · Pull Requests · Project Notes Overview PaoPao is a full stack, open source micro community system. It combines a Go backend, a Vue 3 web client, and an optional Tauri desktop application, with a modular feature system for storage, search, logging, observability, and deployment strategy. The repository is suitable for teams or individuals who want to run a community product, evaluate an extensible social platform, or build on top of…
read the full paopao-ce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Flarum or paopao-ce more popular?
Flarum has 16,441 GitHub stars and paopao-ce has 4,501. Flarum has the larger community by that measure.
Are Flarum and paopao-ce free?
Both are open source. Flarum is licensed under MIT and paopao-ce under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Flarum and paopao-ce?
Flarum is written in PHP and paopao-ce 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, Flarum or paopao-ce?
Choose Flarum if you want the larger community (16,441 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose paopao-ce if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.