head to head · open source
rea vs worktrunk
rea has 460,226 GitHub stars, 112,781 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped today. worktrunk has 12,532 stars, 497 forks, 62 open issues and last shipped today. rea leads on adoption by 3,572% (460,226 vs 12,532 stars). rea is written in TypeScript under MIT; worktrunk is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. rea has attracted 25% as many forks as stars, worktrunk 4%. rea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (claude-code), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | worktrunk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 460K | ★ 13K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-15 | 2026-11-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 113K | ⑂ 497 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rea if
- You weight community size — 460K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick worktrunk if
- You want the worktrunk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and worktrunk 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 worktrunk
Worktrunk November 2026 : Worktrunk was released at the start of the year, and has quickly become the most popular git worktree manager. It's built with love (there's no slop!). Please let me know any frictions at all; I'm intensely focused on continuing to make Worktrunk excellent, and the biggest help is folks posting problems they perceive. Worktrunk is a CLI for git worktree management, designed for running AI agents in parallel. Worktrunk's three core commands make worktrees as easy as branches. Plus, Worktrunk has a bunch of quality of life features to simplify working with many parallel changes, including…
read the full worktrunk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rea or worktrunk more popular?
rea has 460,226 GitHub stars and worktrunk has 12,532. rea has the larger community by that measure.
Are rea and worktrunk free?
Both are open source. rea is licensed under MIT and worktrunk under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rea and worktrunk?
rea is written in TypeScript and worktrunk in Rust. 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 worktrunk?
Choose rea if you want the larger community (460,226 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose worktrunk if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.