head to head · open source
beszel vs witr
beszel has 26,783 GitHub stars, 1,138 forks, 313 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. witr has 22,906 stars, 808 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. beszel leads on adoption by 17% (26,783 vs 22,906 stars). beszel is written in Go under MIT; witr is written in Go under Apache-2.0. beszel has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, witr 4%. beszel was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (monitoring), 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| beszel | witr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 23K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 808 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick beszel if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick witr if
- You want the witr feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and witr fits your workflow better
About beszel
Beszel Beszel is a lightweight server monitoring platform that includes Docker statistics, historical data, and alert functions. It has a friendly web interface, simple configuration, and is ready to use out of the box. It supports automatic backup, multi user, OAuth authentication, and API access. Features Lightweight : Smaller and less resource intensive than leading solutions. Simple : Easy setup with little manual configuration required. Docker stats : Tracks CPU, memory, and network usage history for each container. ZFS : Tracks pool capacity, health, and I/O, plus per dataset usage. Alerts : Configurable…
read the full beszel overview →
About witr
witr Why is this running? Trace any process, port, container, or file back to the exact chain that started it — one command, machine readable JSON, or an interactive TUI. 🎮 Try witr in your browser → Investigate a simulated Linux box — a guided tutorial and free play sandbox, no install required. Purpose • Installation • TUI • Flags • Core Concept • Examples Output Behavior • Platforms • Success Criteria • Sponsors 1. Purpose witr exists to answer a single question: Why is this running? When something is running on a system, whether it is a process, a service, or something bound to a port, there is always a…
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Monitoring & Observability projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Monitoring & Observability field.
Frequently asked questions
Is beszel or witr more popular?
beszel has 26,783 GitHub stars and witr has 22,906. beszel has the larger community by that measure.
Are beszel and witr free?
Both are open source. beszel is licensed under MIT and witr under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between beszel and witr?
beszel is written in Go and witr in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, beszel or witr?
Choose beszel if you want the larger community (26,783 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose witr if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.