head to head · open source
slate vs webtorrent
slate has 31,747 GitHub stars, 3,306 forks, 653 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. webtorrent has 31,465 stars, 2,852 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. slate leads on adoption by 1% (31,747 vs 31,465 stars). slate is written in TypeScript under MIT; webtorrent is written in JavaScript under MIT. slate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, webtorrent 9%. webtorrent was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (browser, javascript), 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
| slate | webtorrent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 31K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.3K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick slate if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick webtorrent if
- You want the webtorrent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and webtorrent fits your workflow better
About slate
A completely customizable framework for building rich text editors. Why? · Principles · Demo · Examples · Documentation · Contributing! Slate lets you build rich, intuitive editors like those in Medium, Dropbox Paper or Google Docs—which are becoming table stakes for applications on the web—without your codebase getting mired in complexity. It can do this because all of its logic is implemented with a series of plugins, so you aren't ever constrained by what is or isn't in "core". You can think of it like a pluggable implementation of contenteditable built on top of React. It was inspired by libraries like…
read the full slate overview →
About webtorrent
WebTorrent The streaming torrent client. For node.js and the web. Sponsored by WebTorrent is a streaming torrent client for node.js and the browser . YEP, THAT'S RIGHT. THE BROWSER. It's written completely in JavaScript – the language of the web – so the same code works in both runtimes. In node.js, this module is a simple torrent client, using TCP and UDP to talk to other torrent clients. In the browser, WebTorrent uses WebRTC (data channels) for peer to peer transport. It can be used without browser plugins, extensions, or installations. It's Just JavaScript™. Note: WebTorrent does not support UDP/TCP peers in…
read the full webtorrent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is slate or webtorrent more popular?
slate has 31,747 GitHub stars and webtorrent has 31,465. slate has the larger community by that measure.
Are slate and webtorrent free?
Both are open source. slate is licensed under MIT and webtorrent under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between slate and webtorrent?
slate is written in TypeScript and webtorrent in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, slate or webtorrent?
Choose slate if you want the larger community (31,747 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose webtorrent if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.