head to head · open source
paopao-ce vs Misago
paopao-ce has 4,502 GitHub stars, 656 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Misago has 2,776 stars, 557 forks, 171 open issues and last shipped yesterday. paopao-ce leads on adoption by 62% (4,502 vs 2,776 stars). paopao-ce is written in Go under MIT; Misago is written in Python under GPL-2.0. paopao-ce has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Misago 20%. Misago 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
| paopao-ce | Misago | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.5K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-08-03 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 656 | ⑂ 557 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick paopao-ce if
- You weight community size — 4.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Misago if
- You want the Misago feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Misago fits your workflow better
About paopao-ce
PaoPao is an open source micro community platform that ships a complete social product in a single repository. The backend is written in Go and built on Gin, Cobra, GORM and Mir, while the web client uses Vue 3, Vite and Naive UI. An optional Tauri desktop client is packaged alongside the web application, so the same codebase covers server, browser and desktop delivery. The project is licensed under MIT and lives in the Go ecosystem, with topic tags covering bbs, forum, gin, go, naive, twitter, vue3 and zinc.
read the full paopao-ce overview →
About Misago
Misago is a Python and Django forum application for building online community forums. It lives in the Python and Django web ecosystem and presents itself as a modern forum platform that challenges outdated forum software opinions.
read the full Misago overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is paopao-ce or Misago more popular?
paopao-ce has 4,502 GitHub stars and Misago has 2,776. paopao-ce has the larger community by that measure.
Are paopao-ce and Misago free?
Both are open source. paopao-ce is licensed under MIT and Misago under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between paopao-ce and Misago?
paopao-ce is written in Go and Misago 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, paopao-ce or Misago?
Choose paopao-ce if you want the larger community (4,502 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Misago if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.