head to head · open source
Ente vs Stoat
Ente has 28,969 GitHub stars, 1,806 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Stoat has 3,336 stars, 388 forks, 139 open issues and last shipped today. Ente leads on adoption by 768% (28,969 vs 3,336 stars). Ente is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0; Stoat is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. Ente has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Stoat 12%. Stoat 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
| Ente | Stoat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Dart | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 388 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ente if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Stoat if
- You want the Stoat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Stoat fits your workflow better
About Ente
Ente is a fully open source, end to end encrypted platform for storing photos, documents and credentials in the cloud, packaged as a monorepo of client apps and a server, and intended for people who want the features of Google Photos, Apple Photos and Authy without having to trust the service provider with their data.
About Stoat
Stoat is a Rust backend project that provides the services and libraries powering the Stoat group chat service. The repository is organized around core crates for configuration, database implementation, files, API models, permissions, presence, result types, and a coalesced crate.
read the full Stoat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ente or Stoat more popular?
Ente has 28,969 GitHub stars and Stoat has 3,336. Ente has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ente and Stoat free?
Both are open source. Ente is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Stoat has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Ente and Stoat?
Ente is written in Dart and Stoat 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, Ente or Stoat?
Choose Ente if you want the larger community (28,969 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Stoat if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.