head to head · open source
utopia vs synaplan
utopia has 8,687 GitHub stars, 1,186 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. synaplan has 600 stars, 74 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped yesterday. utopia leads on adoption by 1,348% (8,687 vs 600 stars). utopia is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; synaplan is written in PHP under Apache-2.0. utopia has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, synaplan 12%. synaplan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (knowledge-base, llm), 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
| utopia | synaplan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.7K | ★ 600 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 74 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick utopia if
- You weight community size — 8.7K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick synaplan if
- You want the synaplan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and synaplan fits your workflow better
About utopia
Utopia Philosophy · Quick start · Features · Roadmap The enterprise world model built by DeepLethe. It is the first open substrate for knowledge engineering that learns passively and governs itself. Where a knowledge graph or a vector store works to hold present knowledge, Utopia puts time awareness and ontology in the base layer: the knowledge system evolves as material arrives, and conflict detection, reasoning and decision making all run against that ontology. It deploys offline, so a company can stand up a knowledge foundation, a decision core its agents can trust, and a compliance audit trail on hardware it…
read the full utopia overview →
About synaplan
We produce AI freedom. Try it hosted or run it yourself in three minutes — open source, self hosted AI platform (PHP/Symfony): chat with any model, RAG over your docs, embeddable widget, MCP, and see the cost of every answer. Apache 2.0. On web.synaplan.com you sign up with a paid plan or an invitation code. We send invitation codes to friends and partners who want to try it; write to team@synaplan.com. Running it yourself stays free. Website · Docs · Live instance · iOS · Android · Desktop · Outlook Add in · Discord If Synaplan is useful to you, a star helps the next person find it. Chat, what each answer cost…
read the full synaplan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is utopia or synaplan more popular?
utopia has 8,687 GitHub stars and synaplan has 600. utopia has the larger community by that measure.
Are utopia and synaplan free?
Both are open source. utopia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and synaplan under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between utopia and synaplan?
utopia is written in Rust and synaplan in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, utopia or synaplan?
Choose utopia if you want the larger community (8,687 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose synaplan if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.