head to head · open source
Zen vs Peergos
Zen has 4,347 GitHub stars, 145 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Peergos has 2,549 stars, 204 forks, 103 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Zen leads on adoption by 71% (4,347 vs 2,549 stars). Zen is written in Go under MIT; Peergos is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. Zen has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, Peergos 8%. Peergos 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
| Zen | Peergos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.3K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 145 | ⑂ 204 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zen if
- You weight community size — 4.3K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Peergos if
- You want the Peergos 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 Peergos fits your workflow better
About Zen
Zen: Your Comprehensive Ad Blocker and Privacy Guard There is, simply, no way, to ignore privacy. Because a citizenry’s freedoms are interdependent, to surrender your own privacy is really to surrender everyone’s. Edward Snowden, Permanent Record Website • Mastodon • Bluesky • Discord • Documentation Zen is an open source system wide ad blocker and privacy guard for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It works by setting up a proxy that intercepts HTTP requests from all applications, and blocks those serving ads, tracking scripts that monitor your behavior, malware, and other unwanted content. By operating at the system…
About Peergos
Peergos ======== Peergos is building the next web the private web, where end users are in control. Imagine web apps being secure by default and unable to track you. Imagine being able to control exactly what personal data each web app can see. Imagine never having to log in to an app ever again. You own your data and decide where it is stored and who can see it. At Peergos, we believe that privacy is a fundamental human right and we want to make it easy for everyone to interact online in ways that respect this right. The foundation of Peergos is a peer to peer encrypted global filesystem with fine grained access…
read the full Peergos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen or Peergos more popular?
Zen has 4,347 GitHub stars and Peergos has 2,549. Zen has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen and Peergos free?
Both are open source. Zen is licensed under MIT and Peergos under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen and Peergos?
Zen is written in Go and Peergos 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, Zen or Peergos?
Choose Zen if you want the larger community (4,347 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Peergos if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.