head to head · open source
Unleash vs mCaptcha
Unleash has 13,924 GitHub stars, 919 forks, 39 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mCaptcha has 2,498 stars, 95 forks, 54 open issues and last shipped 1.1 years ago. Unleash leads on adoption by 457% (13,924 vs 2,498 stars). Unleash is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; mCaptcha is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. Unleash has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, mCaptcha 4%. 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 | mCaptcha | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-10-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 919 | ⑂ 95 |
| 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 mCaptcha if
- You want the mCaptcha feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and mCaptcha 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 mCaptcha
mCaptcha Proof of work based, privacy respecting CAPTCHA system with a kickass UX. STATUS: ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT Skip to demo mCaptcha is a privacy respecting, free CAPTCHA system with a kickass UX. Your users no longer have to interact with ridiculous image based CAPTCHA system, wasting precious mental bandwidth. Instead, your computer will do the work for you, see for yourself! How does it work? mCaptcha uses SHA256 based proof of work (PoW) to rate limit users. When a user wants to do something on a mCaptcha protected website, 1. they will have to generate proof of work (a bunch of math that will takes time to…
read the full mCaptcha overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Unleash or mCaptcha more popular?
Unleash has 13,924 GitHub stars and mCaptcha has 2,498. Unleash has the larger community by that measure.
Are Unleash and mCaptcha free?
Both are open source. Unleash is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and mCaptcha under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Unleash and mCaptcha?
Unleash is written in TypeScript and mCaptcha in Rust. 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 mCaptcha?
Choose Unleash if you want the larger community (13,924 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose mCaptcha if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.