head to head · open source
wagtail vs frappe
wagtail has 20,503 GitHub stars, 4,608 forks, 1,007 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frappe has 10,791 stars, 5,327 forks, 2,003 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wagtail leads on adoption by 90% (20,503 vs 10,791 stars). wagtail is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; frappe is written in Python under MIT. wagtail has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, frappe 49%. wagtail was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cms, python), 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| wagtail | frappe | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 11K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.6K | ⑂ 5.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick wagtail if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick frappe if
- You want the frappe feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and frappe fits your workflow better
About wagtail
Wagtail is an open source content management system built on Django, for developers, designers and editors who need a fast authoring interface alongside precise control over front end design and content structure.
read the full wagtail overview →
About frappe
Frappe Framework is a full stack, low code web framework written in Python and JavaScript, licensed under MIT. It runs on the server side on Python and MariaDB, and it ships with a tightly integrated client side library that handles the browser layer of an application. The project sits in the Python and JavaScript web development ecosystem, and it has been developed for roughly fifteen years, with its first work beginning in 2005 and its repository now holding over ten thousand stars and more than five thousand forks.
read the full frappe overview →
More in Content & Publishing
Related comparisons
More Content Management Systems (CMS) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Content Management Systems (CMS) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is wagtail or frappe more popular?
wagtail has 20,503 GitHub stars and frappe has 10,791. wagtail has the larger community by that measure.
Are wagtail and frappe free?
Both are open source. wagtail is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and frappe under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between wagtail and frappe?
wagtail is written in Python and frappe in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, wagtail or frappe?
Choose wagtail if you want the larger community (20,503 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose frappe if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.