# exo vs NATS

> Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | exo | NATS |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77/100 | 80/100 ✓ |
| Rank in category | #5 of 25 in LLM Inference | #2 of 12 in Message Broker |
| GitHub stars | 48 071 ✓ | 20 954 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +448 ✓ | +192 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 7 | 18 ✓ |
| Latest release | v1.0.71 · 23 Apr 2026 | v2.14.9 · 26 Oct 2026 ✓ |
| Setup | Easy ✓ | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes ✓ |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Python | Go |

## Which one should you pick?

NATS scores 80/100 against 77/100 for exo, so it is the safer default.

NATS ships more often: 18 stable releases in the past year, against 7 for exo.

If you want the quickest setup, exo is easier to run; NATS needs more configuration.

exo is growing faster right now (+448 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [exo](https://selfhost.directory/project/exo) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/exo.md)
- [NATS](https://selfhost.directory/project/nats) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/nats.md)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/exo-vs-nats