head to head · open source
AnythingLLM vs QwenPaw
AnythingLLM has 66,141 GitHub stars, 7,347 forks, 311 open issues and last shipped yesterday. QwenPaw has 35,055 stars, 3,115 forks, 990 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AnythingLLM leads on adoption by 89% (66,141 vs 35,055 stars). AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript under MIT; QwenPaw is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. AnythingLLM has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, QwenPaw 9%. QwenPaw was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (agent-harness, ai-agents), 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.
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Side by side
| AnythingLLM | QwenPaw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 35K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.3K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| 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 QwenPaw if
- You want the QwenPaw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and QwenPaw 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 QwenPaw
QwenPaw is a personal AI assistant harness under the Apache 2.0 licence, aimed at people who want an LLM agent running on their own machine or in their own cloud account and reachable from the chat apps they already use.
read the full QwenPaw overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AnythingLLM or QwenPaw more popular?
AnythingLLM has 66,141 GitHub stars and QwenPaw has 35,055. AnythingLLM has the larger community by that measure.
Are AnythingLLM and QwenPaw free?
Both are open source. AnythingLLM is licensed under MIT and QwenPaw under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AnythingLLM and QwenPaw?
AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript and QwenPaw 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 QwenPaw?
Choose AnythingLLM if you want the larger community (66,141 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose QwenPaw if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.