head to head · open source
ralph vs samarium
ralph has 2,516 GitHub stars, 593 forks, 124 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. samarium has 505 stars, 85 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. ralph leads on adoption by 398% (2,516 vs 505 stars). ralph is written in Python under Apache-2.0; samarium is written in Blade under MIT. ralph has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, samarium 17%. 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 | samarium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.5K | ★ 505 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Blade |
| Last push | 2026-09-10 | 2026-05-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 593 | ⑂ 85 |
| 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 samarium if
- You want the samarium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Blade
- You evaluated both and samarium 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 samarium
Samarium is an MIT licensed, Laravel based open source business management system that bundles basic ERP, point of sale, invoicing, and CMS functions into a single self hosted application, aimed at small businesses that need simple operations tooling without enterprise cost or complexity.
read the full samarium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ralph or samarium more popular?
ralph has 2,516 GitHub stars and samarium has 505. ralph has the larger community by that measure.
Are ralph and samarium free?
Both are open source. ralph is licensed under Apache-2.0 and samarium under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ralph and samarium?
ralph is written in Python and samarium in Blade. 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 samarium?
Choose ralph if you want the larger community (2,516 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose samarium if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.