head to head · open source
misskey vs writefreely
misskey has 11,368 GitHub stars, 1,641 forks, 2,535 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. writefreely has 5,283 stars, 408 forks, 108 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. misskey leads on adoption by 115% (11,368 vs 5,283 stars). misskey is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; writefreely is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. misskey has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, writefreely 8%. misskey was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (activitypub, federation), 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
| misskey | writefreely | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 408 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick misskey if
- You weight community size — 11K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick writefreely if
- You want the writefreely feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and writefreely fits your workflow better
About misskey
🌎 Misskey is an open source, federated social media platform that's free forever! 🚀 Learn more Thanks Thanks to Sentry for providing the error tracking platform that helps us catch unexpected errors. Thanks to Chromatic for providing the visual testing platform that helps us review UI changes and catch visual regressions. Thanks to Codecov for providing the code coverage platform that helps us improve our test coverage. Thanks to Crowdin for providing the localization platform that helps us translate Misskey into many languages. Thanks to Docker for providing the container platform that helps us run Misskey in…
read the full misskey overview →
About writefreely
WriteFreely is a clean, minimalist publishing platform made for writers. Start a blog, share knowledge within your organization, or build a community around the shared act of writing. Try the writing experience Find an instance Features Made for writing Built on a plain, auto saving editor, WriteFreely gives you a distraction free writing environment. Once published, your words are front and center, and easy to read. A connected community Start writing together, publicly or privately. Connect with other communities, whether running WriteFreely, Plume, or other ActivityPub powered software. And bring members on…
read the full writefreely overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is misskey or writefreely more popular?
misskey has 11,368 GitHub stars and writefreely has 5,283. misskey has the larger community by that measure.
Are misskey and writefreely free?
Both are open source. misskey is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and writefreely under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between misskey and writefreely?
misskey is written in TypeScript and writefreely 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, misskey or writefreely?
Choose misskey if you want the larger community (11,368 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose writefreely if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.