head to head · open source
Paperclip vs Emdash
Paperclip has 80,932 GitHub stars, 14,855 forks, 5,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Emdash has 5,763 stars, 592 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Paperclip leads on adoption by 1,304% (80,932 vs 5,763 stars). Paperclip is written in TypeScript under MIT; Emdash is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Paperclip has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Emdash 10%. Paperclip was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Paperclip | Emdash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 5.8K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 592 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Paperclip if
- You weight community size — 81K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Emdash if
- You want the Emdash feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Emdash fits your workflow better
About Paperclip
Paperclip is an open source orchestration platform for managing teams of AI agents in production environments. It lives in the Node.js and React ecosystem and is licensed under MIT. The project addresses the operational chaos that arises when deploying multiple autonomous AI agents—such as OpenClaw, Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor—across an organization. Without coordination, teams face untraceable workflows, runaway costs, misaligned goals, and poor governance. Paperclip solves this by providing a unified dashboard that enforces org structure, budget controls, goal alignment, and auditability across heterogeneous …
read the full Paperclip overview →
About Emdash
Emdash is an open source desktop app and agentic development environment for developers who want to run several AI coding agents in parallel, each isolated in its own Git worktree, against local projects or remote machines over SSH.
read the full Emdash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Paperclip or Emdash more popular?
Paperclip has 80,932 GitHub stars and Emdash has 5,763. Paperclip has the larger community by that measure.
Are Paperclip and Emdash free?
Both are open source. Paperclip is licensed under MIT and Emdash under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Paperclip and Emdash?
Paperclip is written in TypeScript and Emdash in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Paperclip or Emdash?
Choose Paperclip if you want the larger community (80,932 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Emdash if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.