head to head · open source
Strapi vs Instatic
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars, 9,875 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Instatic has 8,691 stars, 802 forks, 134 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Strapi leads on adoption by 742% (73,184 vs 8,691 stars). Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Instatic is written in TypeScript under MIT. Strapi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, Instatic 9%. 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 | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 802 |
| 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
Strapi is an open source headless content management system built entirely in JavaScript and TypeScript. It provides a customizable admin dashboard and automatically generates REST and GraphQL APIs for any content structure defined through its visual Content Type Builder. Strapi lives in the JavaScript ecosystem and targets developers who need to deliver content to diverse frontends—including web, mobile, and IoT applications—without being locked into a specific presentation layer.
read the full Strapi overview →
About Instatic
Instatic is an MIT licensed, TypeScript built visual CMS that lets designers, developers, and small teams self host their entire website stack — editor, content engine, and publisher — on a single Bun server and publish clean static pages.
read the full Instatic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Strapi or Instatic more popular?
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars and Instatic has 8,691. 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 (73,184 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Instatic if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.