head to head · open source
Unleash vs Friendly Captcha
Unleash has 13,811 GitHub stars, 896 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Friendly Captcha has 33 stars, 15 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. Unleash leads on adoption by 41,752% (13,811 vs 33 stars). Unleash is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Friendly Captcha is written in TypeScript under MPL-2.0. Unleash has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Friendly Captcha 45%. 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 | ★ 33 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 896 | ⑂ 15 |
| 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
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 Friendly Captcha
Friendly Captcha SDK is the TypeScript library that website developers install to add Friendly Captcha v2 proof of work bot protection to their forms and pages, built for teams that want to block spam and abuse while keeping visitor data private and staying GDPR compliant.
read the full Friendly Captcha overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Unleash or Friendly Captcha more popular?
Unleash has 13,811 GitHub stars and Friendly Captcha has 33. 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 (13,811 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.