head to head · open source
paopao-ce vs Spirit
paopao-ce has 4,505 GitHub stars, 649 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Spirit has 1,187 stars, 329 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped yesterday. paopao-ce leads on adoption by 280% (4,505 vs 1,187 stars). paopao-ce is written in Go under MIT; Spirit is written in Python under MIT. paopao-ce has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Spirit 28%. Spirit 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 | Spirit | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.5K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-08-03 | 2026-11-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 649 | ⑂ 329 |
| 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 Spirit if
- You want the Spirit feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Spirit fits your workflow better
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 →
About Spirit
Spirit Spirit is a Python based forum built using the Django framework. Documentation Docs can be found at spirit.readthedocs.io Compatibility Python 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13 Django 4.2 LTS, 5.2 LTS PostgreSQL (recommended), MySQL, Oracle Database and SQLite Constrained by "What Python version can I use with Django?" Usage Visit For detailed setup docs, see spirit.readthedocs.io Dev Use uv tooling. Testing Lint & Format License MIT
read the full Spirit overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is paopao-ce or Spirit more popular?
paopao-ce has 4,505 GitHub stars and Spirit has 1,187. paopao-ce has the larger community by that measure.
Are paopao-ce and Spirit free?
Both are open source. paopao-ce is licensed under MIT and Spirit under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between paopao-ce and Spirit?
paopao-ce is written in Go and Spirit 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 Spirit?
Choose paopao-ce if you want the larger community (4,505 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Spirit if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.