head to head · open source
AstrBot vs bitterbot-desktop
AstrBot has 45,662 GitHub stars, 3,350 forks, 1,516 open issues and last shipped yesterday. bitterbot-desktop has 2,479 stars, 421 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AstrBot leads on adoption by 1,742% (45,662 vs 2,479 stars). AstrBot is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; bitterbot-desktop is written in TypeScript under MIT. AstrBot has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, bitterbot-desktop 17%. bitterbot-desktop was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (chatbot), 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
| AstrBot | bitterbot-desktop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 421 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick AstrBot if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bitterbot-desktop if
- You want the bitterbot-desktop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and bitterbot-desktop fits your workflow better
About AstrBot
简体中文 ｜ 繁體中文 ｜ 日本語 ｜ Français ｜ Español ｜ Русский Documentation ｜ Blog ｜ Roadmap ｜ Issue Tracker ｜ Email Support AstrBot is an open source all in one Agent chatbot platform that integrates with mainstream instant messaging apps. It provides reliable and scalable conversational AI infrastructure for individuals, developers, and teams. Whether you're building a personal AI companion, intelligent customer service, automation assistant, or enterprise knowledge base, AstrBot enables you to quickly build production ready AI applications within your IM platform workflows. Key Features 1. 💯 Free & Open Source. 2. ✨ AI…
read the full AstrBot overview →
About bitterbot-desktop
A local first personal AI with biological memory, a dream engine, and a P2P skills economy. = 22" Most AI agents are stateless wrappers around an LLM API. Close the terminal, and they forget you exist. Bitterbot is different. It's a personal AI that lives on your devices, remembers your life, and actually does things, browses the web, runs code, talks to you on WhatsApp. While you sleep, it dreams: tidying and consolidating its memory, distilling the skills that provably worked into reusable know how, and preparing for what you're likely to ask next — and it grades its own dreaming by whether the results…
read the full bitterbot-desktop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AstrBot or bitterbot-desktop more popular?
AstrBot has 45,662 GitHub stars and bitterbot-desktop has 2,479. AstrBot has the larger community by that measure.
Are AstrBot and bitterbot-desktop free?
Both are open source. AstrBot is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and bitterbot-desktop under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AstrBot and bitterbot-desktop?
AstrBot is written in Python and bitterbot-desktop 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, AstrBot or bitterbot-desktop?
Choose AstrBot if you want the larger community (45,662 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose bitterbot-desktop if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.