head to head · open source
AnythingLLM vs catai
AnythingLLM has 66,155 GitHub stars, 7,348 forks, 311 open issues and last shipped yesterday. catai has 500 stars, 39 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. AnythingLLM leads on adoption by 13,131% (66,155 vs 500 stars). AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript under MIT; catai is written in TypeScript under MIT. AnythingLLM has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, catai 8%. AnythingLLM was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| AnythingLLM | catai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 500 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-11-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.3K | ⑂ 39 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick AnythingLLM if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick catai if
- You want the catai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and catai fits your workflow better
About AnythingLLM
AnythingLLM is a local first AI application that enables users to chat with their documents using any large language model (LLM), local or cloud hosted. It runs as a self hosted service—by default in Docker—and provides a complete interface for document ingestion, agent orchestration, multi user access, and workflow automation without requiring external cloud dependencies. The project lives in the local AI and AI interaction ecosystem, targeting users who want full control over their data and model selection.
read the full AnythingLLM overview →
About catai
Catai 🚀 Exciting Updates Coming Soon! New UI , Function Calling , and more amazing features are on the way! Stay tuned for updates. Run GGUF models on your computer with a chat ui. Your own AI assistant runs locally on your computer. Inspired by Node Llama Cpp, Llama.cpp Installation & Use Make sure you have Node.js ( download current ) installed. Features Auto detect programming language 🧑💻 Click on user icon to show original message 💬 Real time text streaming ⏱️ Fast model downloads 🚀 CLI Install command Cross platform You can use it on Windows, Linux and Mac. This package uses node llama cpp which suppor…
read the full catai overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Interaction & Interfaces projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Interaction & Interfaces field.
Frequently asked questions
Is AnythingLLM or catai more popular?
AnythingLLM has 66,155 GitHub stars and catai has 500. AnythingLLM has the larger community by that measure.
Are AnythingLLM and catai free?
Both are open source. AnythingLLM is licensed under MIT and catai under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AnythingLLM and catai?
AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript and catai in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, AnythingLLM or catai?
Choose AnythingLLM if you want the larger community (66,155 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose catai if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.