head to head · open source
WordPress vs Nordcraft
WordPress has 21,428 GitHub stars, 12,979 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Nordcraft has 489 stars, 45 forks, 184 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. WordPress leads on adoption by 4,282% (21,428 vs 489 stars). WordPress is written in PHP under a custom or non-standard licence; Nordcraft is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. WordPress has attracted 61% as many forks as stars, Nordcraft 9%. WordPress 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
| WordPress | Nordcraft | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 489 |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 13K | ⑂ 45 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick WordPress if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Nordcraft if
- You want the Nordcraft feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Nordcraft fits your workflow better
About WordPress
WordPress is a PHP based website builder and personal publishing platform. It lives in the open source web publishing ecosystem and is distributed as a self hosted package installed on a web server. The project provides an administrative interface for creating, customizing, and managing a website, and it relies on a MySQL or MariaDB database for site content and configuration.
read the full WordPress overview →
About Nordcraft
Nordcraft is a monorepo that holds the packages used internally by the Nordcraft framework, a tool for building web applications with server side rendering, branching, version control, and components. The repository is written in TypeScript and published under the Apache 2.0 license, with packages released to npm under the @nordcraft scope. It lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem, and it is developed with the bun runtime and package manager. The project homepage is nordcraft.com, and community discussion happens through Discord, BlueSky, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
read the full Nordcraft overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is WordPress or Nordcraft more popular?
WordPress has 21,428 GitHub stars and Nordcraft has 489. WordPress has the larger community by that measure.
Are WordPress and Nordcraft free?
Both are open source. WordPress has no licence declared in this registry, and Nordcraft is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between WordPress and Nordcraft?
WordPress is written in PHP and Nordcraft in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, WordPress or Nordcraft?
Choose WordPress if you want the larger community (21,428 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Nordcraft if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.