How to spot fake GitHub stars
Stars are the first thing most people look at, and they can be bought. A project with thousands of stars is not always popular.
Signs that stars may not be real
- Thousands of stars within days of launch, with very few forks or issues.
- Several repositories from the same owner that each passed a few thousand stars within weeks.
- A steep spike followed by a flat line, instead of steady growth.
- Stars from accounts with no activity of their own.
What we do about it
ForkFree tracks star growth over time and flags unusual patterns on our Star Watch page. A flag is a reason to look harder, not proof of anything, so we never hide a project because of one.
What to check instead of stars
- Recent commits and releases.
- Open issues that real people are answering.
- Whether other projects depend on it.
- A clear licence and a readable README.
Not legal advice. Read each project's licence file before you build or sell anything on it.