head to head · open source
AnythingLLM vs sim
AnythingLLM has 66,141 GitHub stars, 7,347 forks, 311 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sim has 29,655 stars, 3,837 forks, 336 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AnythingLLM leads on adoption by 123% (66,141 vs 29,655 stars). AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript under MIT; sim is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. AnythingLLM has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, sim 13%. sim was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (agentic-workflow), 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 | sim | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 30K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.3K | ⑂ 3.8K |
| 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 sim if
- You want the sim 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 sim 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 sim
Sim is an open source collaborative workspace for building, deploying, and monitoring AI agents and workflows. It lives in the TypeScript ecosystem and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, with a repository that has accumulated roughly 29,600 stars and 3,800 forks over its two year history. The project positions itself as a single surface where chat, workflows, tables, files, and knowledge coexist, whether accessed through a browser or a desktop application for macOS.
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Frequently asked questions
Is AnythingLLM or sim more popular?
AnythingLLM has 66,141 GitHub stars and sim has 29,655. AnythingLLM has the larger community by that measure.
Are AnythingLLM and sim free?
Both are open source. AnythingLLM is licensed under MIT and sim under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AnythingLLM and sim?
AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript and sim 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 sim?
Choose AnythingLLM if you want the larger community (66,141 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose sim if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.