head to head · open source
Tuta vs Zen
Tuta has 7,925 GitHub stars, 639 forks, 1,001 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zen has 4,225 stars, 143 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Tuta leads on adoption by 88% (7,925 vs 4,225 stars). Tuta is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; Zen is written in Go under MIT. Tuta has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Zen 3%. Tuta was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (privacy), 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
| Tuta | Zen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.9K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 639 | ⑂ 143 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tuta if
- You weight community size — 7.9K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Zen if
- You want the Zen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Zen fits your workflow better
About Tuta
Tuta is an open source, end to end encrypted email, calendar and contacts service for individuals and teams who need private communication to work across every device they own.
About Zen
Zen is an open source desktop application written in Go for Windows, macOS, and Linux under the MIT license. It operates as a system wide ad blocker and privacy guard, so it applies to traffic from applications on the machine rather than only to browser tabs. It lives in the desktop security and privacy ecosystem, where users want filtering without browser extensions.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tuta or Zen more popular?
Tuta has 7,925 GitHub stars and Zen has 4,225. Tuta has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tuta and Zen free?
Both are open source. Tuta is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Zen under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tuta and Zen?
Tuta is written in TypeScript and Zen in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Tuta or Zen?
Choose Tuta if you want the larger community (7,925 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Zen if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.