head to head · open source
ralph vs marley
ralph has 2,531 GitHub stars, 593 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped yesterday. marley has 555 stars, 476 forks, 74 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ralph leads on adoption by 356% (2,531 vs 555 stars). ralph is written in Python under Apache-2.0; marley is written in Python under GPL-3.0. ralph has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, marley 86%. ralph 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
| ralph | marley | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.5K | ★ 555 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 593 | ⑂ 476 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ralph if
- You weight community size — 2.5K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick marley if
- You want the marley feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and marley fits your workflow better
About ralph
Ralph Update 2025/02 As Allegro, we continue to publish Ralph's source code and will maintain its development under a "Sources only" model, without guarantees. We believe this approach will be beneficial, allowing everyone to use and build upon the software. Our current goal is to modernize the software and ensure its long term maintainability, and we're investing into it in 2025. However, we are not operating under a contribution based model. While we welcome discussions, we do not guarantee responses to issues or support for pull requests. If you require commercial support, please visit We sincerely appreciate…
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About marley
Marley Health Open source & easy to use hospital information system(HIS) for all healthcare organisations. Marley Health Introduction Marley Health enables the health domain in ERPNext and has various features that will help healthcare practitioners, clinics and hospitals to leverage the power of Frappe and ERPNext. It is built on Frappe, a full stack, meta data driven, web framework, and integrates seamlessly with ERPNext, the most agile ERP software. Marley Health helps to manage healthcare workflows efficiently and most of the design is based on HL7 FHIR (Fast Health Interoperability Resources). Key Features…
read the full marley overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ralph or marley more popular?
ralph has 2,531 GitHub stars and marley has 555. ralph has the larger community by that measure.
Are ralph and marley free?
Both are open source. ralph is licensed under Apache-2.0 and marley under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ralph and marley?
ralph is written in Python and marley 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, ralph or marley?
Choose ralph if you want the larger community (2,531 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose marley if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.