head to head · open source
nats-server vs Sequin
nats-server has 20,989 GitHub stars, 2,025 forks, 472 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sequin has 2,223 stars, 153 forks, 71 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. nats-server leads on adoption by 844% (20,989 vs 2,223 stars). nats-server is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Sequin is written in Elixir under MIT. nats-server has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Sequin 7%. nats-server 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
| nats-server | Sequin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Elixir |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-02-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 153 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nats-server if
- You weight community size — 21K 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 Sequin if
- You want the Sequin feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You evaluated both and Sequin fits your workflow better
About nats-server
NATS is a simple, secure and performant communications system for digital systems, services and devices. NATS is part of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). NATS has over 40 client language implementations, and its server can run on premise, in the cloud, at the edge, and even on a Raspberry Pi. NATS can secure and simplify design and operation of modern distributed systems. [![License][License Image]][License Url] [![Build][Build Status Image]][Build Status Url] [![Release][Release Image]][Release Url] [![Slack][Slack Image]][Slack Url] [![Coverage][Coverage Image]][Coverage Url] [![Docker…
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About Sequin
Documentation · Website · Discord · Slack · Blog Sequin Sequin is the fastest change data capture (CDC) platform for Postgres. Sequin makes it easy to stream Postgres to streaming platforms, queues, search indexes, and more (e.g. Kafka, GCP Pub/Sub, another Postgres, etc.). You can backfill existing rows and stream new changes in real time. Sequin is a standalone Docker container that you can deploy next to your Postgres database. For production deployments on AWS, see the deployment/ directory for Terraform infrastructure as code templates. Sequin is open source. To help us make this project great, tell us what…
read the full Sequin overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nats-server or Sequin more popular?
nats-server has 20,989 GitHub stars and Sequin has 2,223. nats-server has the larger community by that measure.
Are nats-server and Sequin free?
Both are open source. nats-server is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Sequin under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nats-server and Sequin?
nats-server is written in Go and Sequin in Elixir. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, nats-server or Sequin?
Choose nats-server if you want the larger community (20,989 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Sequin if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.