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Comparison

A collection of 18 posts

Discourse vs Flarum vs NodeBB: Which Self-Hosted Forum Platform in 2026?

Discourse vs Flarum vs NodeBB: Which Self-Hosted Forum Platform in 2026?

Picking a forum platform in 2026 is annoying. Reddit is a private club. Discord is for vibes, not searchable threads. And every SaaS "community platform" either disappears at acquisition or jacks the price the day you depend on it. If you want to own your community, self-hosting is

Gitea vs GitLab: Which Self-Hosted Git Server in 2026?

Gitea vs GitLab: Which Self-Hosted Git Server in 2026?

If you're shopping for a self-hosted Git server in 2026, the choice usually comes down to two: Gitea or GitLab. They sound similar on a feature checklist. They are not the same animal at all. I've run both in production for different teams, and I'

LibreChat vs OpenWebUI vs Lobe Chat: Which to Self-Host in 2026?

LibreChat vs OpenWebUI vs Lobe Chat: Which to Self-Host in 2026?

You've decided you don't want your team's prompts (or your customers' chat history) sitting on someone else's GPU. Good call. Now comes the part nobody warns you about: picking a self-hosted ChatGPT clone is harder than picking the model behind it.

Apache Superset vs Metabase vs Redash: Which Open-Source BI Tool to Self-Host in 2026?

Apache Superset vs Metabase vs Redash: Which Open-Source BI Tool to Self-Host in 2026?

If you're picking an open-source BI tool in 2026, the shortlist is short: Apache Superset, Metabase, and Redash. Same SQL backend, same CSV upload, same "make a chart, share a dashboard" promise. The differences live in who owns the project, who the tool is actually built

Euro-Office vs OnlyOffice: The Fork That's Splitting the Self-Hosted Office World

Euro-Office vs OnlyOffice: The Fork That's Splitting the Self-Hosted Office World

On March 27, 2026, a coalition of nine European companies walked into the Bundestag in Berlin and announced they were forking OnlyOffice. The project is called Euro-Office, and it's already the most controversial thing to happen in the self-hosted office world since LibreOffice split from OpenOffice. If you&

Immich vs PhotoPrism: Which Self-Hosted Photo Manager for Your Family?

Immich vs PhotoPrism: Which Self-Hosted Photo Manager for Your Family?

Google Photos gives you 15 GB for free, then starts charging. iCloud locks you into Apple's ecosystem. Amazon Photos requires a Prime subscription. At some point, you start wondering: can I just host my own? Yes. And the two best options are Immich and PhotoPrism. Both are open-source,

Collabora Online vs OnlyOffice: Which Self-Hosted Office Suite After the Euro-Office Fork?

Collabora Online vs OnlyOffice: Which Self-Hosted Office Suite After the Euro-Office Fork?

The self-hosted office suite space just got very interesting. A European consortium — Nextcloud, IONOS, and Proton among them — forked OnlyOffice into "Euro-Office," citing transparency concerns, closed development practices, and the project's Russian development team. OnlyOffice responded by suspending its 8-year partnership with Nextcloud and alleging license

Meilisearch vs Typesense: Which Search Engine for Your App?

Meilisearch vs Typesense: Which Search Engine for Your App?

If you're building search into your app and you've already ruled out Algolia's pricing, you've probably landed on the same two options everyone else has: Meilisearch and Typesense. Both are open-source, both offer instant search-as-you-type, and both promise to be the "

RustFS vs SeaweedFS vs Garage: Which MinIO Alternative Should You Pick?

RustFS vs SeaweedFS vs Garage: Which MinIO Alternative Should You Pick?

MinIO is effectively dead. In December 2025, the project entered "maintenance mode" — no new features, no PR reviews, not even guaranteed security patches. Before that, the web UI got stripped out and locked behind a $96K/year enterprise license. If you're running MinIO today, you'

Outline vs BookStack: Which Self-Hosted Wiki for Your Team?

Outline vs BookStack: Which Self-Hosted Wiki for Your Team?

You need a wiki. Maybe your team's knowledge lives in a mess of Google Docs, Slack threads, and "ask Sarah, she knows." You've narrowed it down to two self-hosted options: Outline and BookStack. Both are open-source, both are excellent — but they solve the problem

ClickHouse vs TimescaleDB vs InfluxDB: Which Time-Series Database for Your Analytics?

ClickHouse vs TimescaleDB vs InfluxDB: Which Time-Series Database for Your Analytics?

I've been running time-series workloads for years, and here's what nobody tells you upfront: picking the wrong database doesn't just slow things down — it shapes (and limits) every decision you make afterward. Your query patterns, your storage costs, even how your team thinks about

Supabase vs Appwrite vs PocketBase: Which Open-Source Backend for Your Next App?

Supabase vs Appwrite vs PocketBase: Which Open-Source Backend for Your Next App?

Firebase changed its pricing again. You're not surprised — you've been here before. So you start looking at open-source backends you can actually own, and three names keep coming up: Supabase, Appwrite, and PocketBase. All three promise to replace Firebase. None of them do it the same

Chatwoot vs Zulip vs Rocket.Chat: Which Self-Hosted Chat Platform for Your Team?

Chatwoot vs Zulip vs Rocket.Chat: Which Self-Hosted Chat Platform for Your Team?

Here's the thing nobody tells you when you're searching for "self-hosted Slack alternative": Chatwoot, Zulip, and Rocket.Chat show up in every list, but they're not the same kind of tool. Picking the wrong one means rebuilding your communication stack six months

NocoDB vs Baserow: Which Open-Source Airtable Alternative Should You Pick?

NocoDB vs Baserow: Which Open-Source Airtable Alternative Should You Pick?

Here's a sentence you've probably typed into Google: "open source Airtable alternative." And you probably landed on two names — NocoDB and Baserow. Both promise to free you from Airtable's per-seat pricing trap. Both let you self-host. But they solve the problem in

Meilisearch vs Typesense vs Algolia: Which Search Engine Fits Your Stack?

Meilisearch vs Typesense vs Algolia: Which Search Engine Fits Your Stack?

You need search. Not "maybe eventually" search — real, typo-tolerant, sub-50ms, search-as-you-type search. The kind where your users start typing "runnng shoes" and instantly see running shoes. The question is: which engine do you pick? Meilisearch, Typesense, and Algolia are the three names that keep coming up.

The Rise of Open-Source Backend Platforms: Firebase, Supabase, and Appwrite Compared

The Rise of Open-Source Backend Platforms: Firebase, Supabase, and Appwrite Compared

Something interesting happened in backend development over the past two years. Firebase, once the default choice for startups building their first app, started losing ground to open-source alternatives. Not because Firebase stopped working, but because developers realized they were trading convenience for control. The shift tells a bigger story about

Elestio vs Railway vs Render vs Fly.io: Which Platform Actually Fits Your Needs?

Elestio vs Railway vs Render vs Fly.io: Which Platform Actually Fits Your Needs?

If you're looking to deploy applications in 2025, you've probably stumbled across Railway, Render, and Fly.io. They're everywhere in developer discussions, and for good reason. They promise easy deployments, git-push workflows, and that sweet "it just works" experience. But here'

We Calculated How Much Slack Actually Costs—Then Found Two Alternatives That Save Teams $15,000/Year

We Calculated How Much Slack Actually Costs—Then Found Two Alternatives That Save Teams $15,000/Year

We Calculated How Much Slack Actually Costs—Then Found Two Alternatives That Save Teams $15,000/Year Your CFO just sent that email again. "Can we talk about our software costs?" You know what's coming. Slack is eating 15% of your SaaS budget, and it'