head to head · open source
seaweedfs vs parse-server
seaweedfs has 34,819 GitHub stars, 3,002 forks, 772 open issues and last shipped yesterday. parse-server has 21,409 stars, 4,807 forks, 561 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. seaweedfs leads on adoption by 63% (34,819 vs 21,409 stars). seaweedfs is written in Go under Apache-2.0; parse-server is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. seaweedfs has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, parse-server 22%. seaweedfs was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (object-storage), 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
| seaweedfs | parse-server | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 21K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 4.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick seaweedfs if
- You weight community size — 35K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick parse-server if
- You want the parse-server feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and parse-server fits your workflow better
About seaweedfs
SeaweedFS is an Apache 2.0 distributed storage system written in Go that serves an S3 compatible object store, a POSIX file system, and Iceberg lakehouse tables from one weed binary, built for storing and serving billions of files with O(1) disk access.
read the full seaweedfs overview →
About parse-server
Parse Server is an open source backend, built for Node.js and the Express web application framework, that can be deployed to any infrastructure able to run Node.js and that serves applications written against the Parse Platform.
read the full parse-server overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is seaweedfs or parse-server more popular?
seaweedfs has 34,819 GitHub stars and parse-server has 21,409. seaweedfs has the larger community by that measure.
Are seaweedfs and parse-server free?
Both are open source. seaweedfs is licensed under Apache-2.0 and parse-server under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between seaweedfs and parse-server?
seaweedfs is written in Go and parse-server in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, seaweedfs or parse-server?
Choose seaweedfs if you want the larger community (34,819 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose parse-server if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.