head to head · open source
paopao-ce vs symphony
paopao-ce has 4,502 GitHub stars, 656 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. symphony has 2,939 stars, 507 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. paopao-ce leads on adoption by 53% (4,502 vs 2,939 stars). paopao-ce is written in Go under MIT; symphony is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. paopao-ce has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, symphony 17%. symphony was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (bbs, 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 | symphony | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.5K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-08-03 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 656 | ⑂ 507 |
| 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 symphony if
- You want the symphony feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and symphony 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 symphony
Symphony is a community platform implemented in Java under the AGPL 3.0 license. It combines a discussion forum, a Q&A site, a social network with sharing, friends, and games, and blog like publishing in one system. The project lives in the Java ecosystem and is published through the B3log website and official discussion area.
read the full symphony overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is paopao-ce or symphony more popular?
paopao-ce has 4,502 GitHub stars and symphony has 2,939. paopao-ce has the larger community by that measure.
Are paopao-ce and symphony free?
Both are open source. paopao-ce is licensed under MIT and symphony under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between paopao-ce and symphony?
paopao-ce is written in Go and symphony in Java. 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 symphony?
Choose paopao-ce if you want the larger community (4,502 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose symphony if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.