head to head · open source
Strapi vs OrchardCore
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars, 9,875 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OrchardCore has 8,184 stars, 2,598 forks, 854 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Strapi leads on adoption by 794% (73,184 vs 8,184 stars). Strapi is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; OrchardCore is written in C# under BSD-3-Clause. Strapi has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, OrchardCore 32%. 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 | OrchardCore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 73K | ★ 8.2K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.9K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| 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 OrchardCore if
- You want the OrchardCore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and OrchardCore 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 OrchardCore
Orchard Core is an open source, modular, multi tenant application framework and content management system built on ASP.NET Core, for .NET teams that want to build or self host modular web applications and content driven sites under the BSD 3 Clause licence.
read the full OrchardCore overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Strapi or OrchardCore more popular?
Strapi has 73,184 GitHub stars and OrchardCore has 8,184. Strapi has the larger community by that measure.
Are Strapi and OrchardCore free?
Both are open source. Strapi has no licence declared in this registry, and OrchardCore is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Strapi and OrchardCore?
Strapi is written in TypeScript and OrchardCore in C#. 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 OrchardCore?
Choose Strapi if you want the larger community (73,184 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose OrchardCore if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.