head to head · open source
AnythingLLM vs Sidekick
AnythingLLM has 66,155 GitHub stars, 7,348 forks, 311 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sidekick has 3,312 stars, 148 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. AnythingLLM leads on adoption by 1,897% (66,155 vs 3,312 stars). AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript under MIT; Sidekick is written in Swift under MIT. AnythingLLM has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Sidekick 4%. AnythingLLM was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (agentic-ai, 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 | Sidekick | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.3K | ⑂ 148 |
| 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 Sidekick if
- You want the Sidekick feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and Sidekick 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 Sidekick
Sidekick Chat with a local LLM that can respond with information from your files, folders and websites on your Mac without installing any other software. All conversations happen offline, and your data stays secure. Sidekick is a local first application –– with a built in inference engine for local models, while accommodating OpenAI compatible APIs for additional model options. Sidekick supports modern GGUF local models such as Qwen3.5 out of the box through its built in llama.cpp backend. Example Use Let’s say you're collecting evidence for a History paper about interactions between Aztecs and Spanish troops, an…
read the full Sidekick overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AnythingLLM or Sidekick more popular?
AnythingLLM has 66,155 GitHub stars and Sidekick has 3,312. AnythingLLM has the larger community by that measure.
Are AnythingLLM and Sidekick free?
Both are open source. AnythingLLM is licensed under MIT and Sidekick under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AnythingLLM and Sidekick?
AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript and Sidekick in Swift. 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 Sidekick?
Choose AnythingLLM if you want the larger community (66,155 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Sidekick if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.