head to head · open source
Shelf vs marley
Shelf has 3,049 GitHub stars, 384 forks, 181 open issues and last shipped yesterday. marley has 555 stars, 476 forks, 74 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Shelf leads on adoption by 449% (3,049 vs 555 stars). Shelf is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; marley is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Shelf has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, marley 86%. Shelf 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
| Shelf | marley | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.0K | ★ 555 |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 384 | ⑂ 476 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Shelf if
- You weight community size — 3.0K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick marley if
- You want the marley feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and marley fits your workflow better
About Shelf
Open source asset management infrastructure for everyone. Website · Documentation · Discord · Twitter Shelf is a platform for tracking physical assets — equipment, devices, tools, vehicles, props, inventory. It's built for teams that need to know what they have, where it is, and who's using it. Organizations use Shelf to manage thousands of assets across locations with role based access for their teams. Features QR asset tags — Generate and print QR codes. Scan with any phone to view, check out, or report an asset. Bookings and reservations — Schedule equipment, prevent double bookings, set…
read the full Shelf overview →
About marley
Marley Health Open source & easy to use hospital information system(HIS) for all healthcare organisations. Marley Health Introduction Marley Health enables the health domain in ERPNext and has various features that will help healthcare practitioners, clinics and hospitals to leverage the power of Frappe and ERPNext. It is built on Frappe, a full stack, meta data driven, web framework, and integrates seamlessly with ERPNext, the most agile ERP software. Marley Health helps to manage healthcare workflows efficiently and most of the design is based on HL7 FHIR (Fast Health Interoperability Resources). Key Features…
read the full marley overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Shelf or marley more popular?
Shelf has 3,049 GitHub stars and marley has 555. Shelf has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shelf and marley free?
Both are open source. Shelf has no licence declared in this registry, and marley is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Shelf and marley?
Shelf is written in TypeScript and marley 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, Shelf or marley?
Choose Shelf if you want the larger community (3,049 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose marley if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.