head to head · open source
Unleash vs Friendly Captcha
Unleash has 13,924 GitHub stars, 919 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Friendly Captcha has 37 stars, 17 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Unleash leads on adoption by 37,532% (13,924 vs 37 stars). Unleash is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Friendly Captcha is written in TypeScript under MPL-2.0. Unleash has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Friendly Captcha 46%. 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 | Friendly Captcha | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 37 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 919 | ⑂ 17 |
| 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 Friendly Captcha if
- You want the Friendly Captcha feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Friendly Captcha fits your workflow better
About Unleash
Launch the live demo Try Unleash Enterprise for free What is Unleash? Unleash is a powerful open source solution for feature management. It streamlines your development workflow, accelerates software delivery, and empowers teams to control how and when they roll out new features to end users. With Unleash, you can deploy code to production in smaller, more manageable releases at your own pace. Feature flags in Unleash let you test your code with real production data, reducing the risk of negatively impacting your users' experience. It also enables your team to work on multiple features simultaneously without the…
read the full Unleash overview →
About Friendly Captcha
Friendly Captcha SDK The SDK that is used to integrate Friendly Captcha v2 into your website. This is the code that runs on your website, inserting the captcha widget. ☝️ This is the SDK for Friendly Captcha v2 only . If you are looking for the v1 SDK, you can find that here. Installation You can then use it in your library. CommonJS You can also require the SDK if your environment uses CommonJS. Documentation The documentation can be found in our Developer Hub, and the Getting Started guide. Development If you want to develop this SDK itself the following commands are useful sdktest We include more proper end…
read the full Friendly Captcha overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Unleash or Friendly Captcha more popular?
Unleash has 13,924 GitHub stars and Friendly Captcha has 37. Unleash has the larger community by that measure.
Are Unleash and Friendly Captcha free?
Both are open source. Unleash is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Friendly Captcha under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Unleash and Friendly Captcha?
Unleash is written in TypeScript and Friendly Captcha 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 Friendly Captcha?
Choose Unleash if you want the larger community (13,924 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Friendly Captcha if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.