head to head · open source
Strapi vs Instatic
Strapi has 73,425 GitHub stars, 10,050 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Instatic has 9,047 stars, 868 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Strapi leads on adoption by 712% (73,425 vs 9,047 stars). Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Instatic is written in TypeScript under MIT. Strapi has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Instatic 10%. Strapi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cms), 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
| Strapi | Instatic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 868 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Strapi if
- You weight community size — 73K 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 Instatic if
- You want the Instatic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Instatic fits your workflow better
About Strapi
Open source headless CMS, self hosted or Cloud you're in control. The leading open source headless CMS, 100% JavaScript/TypeScript, flexible and fully customizable. Docs · Strapi Cloud · Roadmap · Discord · Discussions Strapi is an open source, self hosted headless CMS that lets developers build content APIs fast while giving content creators a friendly editing interface. Define your content models and Strapi generates a full API, ready to consume from any frontend, mobile app, or IoT device. Design content structures visually with the Content Type Builder , no code required Auto generated REST & GraphQL APIs…
read the full Strapi overview →
About Instatic
Instatic Own your site. Love building it. A self hosted CMS where the visual editor, content engine, and publisher all live in one Bun server — and the pages it ships are clean enough to read in view source. One Click Deploy · Quick Start · Docs · Plugins · Roadmap Watch the introductory video about Instatic on YouTube. A modern website usually means assembling a stack: a headless CMS, a framework, a host, a form service, an analytics vendor, an image CDN — each with its own bill, dashboard, and 2 a.m. outage. Instatic is the opposite bet. One Bun server holds the whole thing — the canvas editor, the content…
read the full Instatic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Strapi or Instatic more popular?
Strapi has 73,425 GitHub stars and Instatic has 9,047. Strapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Strapi and Instatic free?
Both are open source. Strapi has no licence declared in this registry, and Instatic is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Strapi and Instatic?
Strapi is written in TypeScript and Instatic in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Strapi or Instatic?
Choose Strapi if you want the larger community (73,425 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Instatic if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.