LemmyvsNATS
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Lemmy | NATS | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75/100 | 80/100 |
| Rank in category | #3 of 69 in Social Networks & Forums | #2 of 12 in Message Broker |
| GitHub stars | 14 653 | 20 954 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +44 | +189 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 3 | 18 |
| Latest release | 0.19.21 · 26 Oct 2026 | v2.14.9 · 26 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Rust | Go |
Which one should you pick?
NATS scores 80/100 against 75/100 for Lemmy, so it is the safer default.
NATS ships more often: 18 stable releases in the past year, against 3 for Lemmy.
NATS is growing faster right now (+189 stars in 30 days).