head to head · open source
ralph vs marley
ralph has 2,516 GitHub stars, 593 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. marley has 531 stars, 459 forks, 74 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ralph leads on adoption by 374% (2,516 vs 531 stars). ralph is written in Python under Apache-2.0; marley is written in Python under GPL-3.0. ralph has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, marley 86%. marley 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 | ★ 531 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 593 | ⑂ 459 |
| 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 is an open source asset management, DCIM, and CMDB system written in Python and built with Django. It is intended for organizations that need to manage data center hardware and back office hardware in one place under the Apache 2.0 license. The project lives in the business software and operations ecosystem.
read the full ralph overview →
About marley
Marley Health is an open source, GPL 3.0 licensed health information system (HIS) built on the Frappe framework for healthcare organisations — clinics, hospitals, and practitioners — that want electronic health records and hospital operations running on infrastructure they control.
read the full marley overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ralph or marley more popular?
ralph has 2,516 GitHub stars and marley has 531. 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 (2,516 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.