head to head · open source
rea vs ministack
rea has 438,499 GitHub stars, 108,648 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ministack has 5,113 stars, 538 forks, 30 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. rea leads on adoption by 8,476% (438,499 vs 5,113 stars). rea is written in TypeScript under MIT; ministack is written in Python under MIT. rea has attracted 25% as many forks as stars, ministack 11%. rea 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
| rea | ministack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 438K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-07 | 2026-11-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 109K | ⑂ 538 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rea if
- You weight community size — 438K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ministack if
- You want the ministack feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ministack fits your workflow better
About rea
English · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Türkçe · Русский · Tiếng Việt · ไทย · Deutsch · Español · Français · Українська · Polski · Português (Brasil) · العربية · فارسی REA: Reverse Engineer Anything One MCP for reverse engineering across binaries, applications, and runtime behavior. See a feature you like. Understand how it works, down to the binary level. Website · Guides · Showcases Quick start · How REA works · What you can analyze · Showcases · FAQ · Documentation npx rea agents setup Join the Reverse Engineering Community Discord · Q&A · Show and Tell See a feature in an app that you want in your own product?…
About ministack
MiniStack Free, open source local AWS emulator. Free forever. 60+ AWS services on a single port · Multi account & multi region · Terraform compatible · Real databases · MIT licensed Ministack.org · Docker Hub · LinkedIn Why MiniStack? LocalStack recently moved its core services behind a paid plan. If you relied on LocalStack Community for local development and CI/CD pipelines, MiniStack is your free alternative. 60+ AWS services emulated on a single port (4566) Drop in compatible — works with boto3 , AWS CLI, Terraform, CDK, Pulumi, any SDK Multi account & multi region — a 12 digit access key becomes the…
read the full ministack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rea or ministack more popular?
rea has 438,499 GitHub stars and ministack has 5,113. rea has the larger community by that measure.
Are rea and ministack free?
Both are open source. rea is licensed under MIT and ministack under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rea and ministack?
rea is written in TypeScript and ministack 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, rea or ministack?
Choose rea if you want the larger community (438,499 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ministack if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.