polarvsWriteFreely
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| polar | WriteFreely | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71/100 | 65/100 |
| Rank in category | #1 of 13 in Billing | #2 of 24 in Blogging |
| GitHub stars | 10 436 | 5 276 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +157 | +19 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 1 | 3 |
| Latest release | @polar-sh/cli@3.0.0 · 16 Oct 2026 | v0.17.2 · 10 Aug 2026 |
| Setup | Advanced | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | No | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Main language | Python | Go |
Which one should you pick?
polar scores 71/100 against 65/100 for WriteFreely, so it is the safer default.
WriteFreely ships more often: 3 stable releases in the past year, against 1 for polar.
If you want the quickest setup, WriteFreely is easier to run; polar needs more configuration.
polar is growing faster right now (+157 stars in 30 days).
polar details →WriteFreely details →
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