head to head · open source
Unleash vs ALTCHA
Unleash has 13,811 GitHub stars, 896 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ALTCHA has 2,757 stars, 132 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Unleash leads on adoption by 401% (13,811 vs 2,757 stars). Unleash is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; ALTCHA is written in TypeScript under MIT. Unleash has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, ALTCHA 5%. Unleash 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
| Unleash | ALTCHA | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 2.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 896 | ⑂ 132 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Unleash if
- You weight community size — 14K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ALTCHA if
- You want the ALTCHA feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ALTCHA fits your workflow better
About Unleash
Unleash is an open source feature management platform written in TypeScript and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It lives in the DevOps, continuous delivery, and application security ecosystem, and its topics describe feature flags, feature toggles, activation strategies, experiments, and collaboration.
read the full Unleash overview →
About ALTCHA
ALTCHA is self hosted privacy first security tool. It lives in TypeScript open source web component ecosystem. It belongs to application security. It protects websites, APIs, and online services from spam, bots, and abuse. It uses proof of work mechanism instead of traditional visual puzzles. It is MIT licensed. Operators run it on own infrastructure.
read the full ALTCHA overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Unleash or ALTCHA more popular?
Unleash has 13,811 GitHub stars and ALTCHA has 2,757. Unleash has the larger community by that measure.
Are Unleash and ALTCHA free?
Both are open source. Unleash is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ALTCHA under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Unleash and ALTCHA?
Unleash is written in TypeScript and ALTCHA 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, Unleash or ALTCHA?
Choose Unleash if you want the larger community (13,811 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ALTCHA if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.