head to head · open source
AstrBot vs botman
AstrBot has 45,992 GitHub stars, 3,378 forks, 1,516 open issues and last shipped yesterday. botman has 6,147 stars, 812 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. AstrBot leads on adoption by 648% (45,992 vs 6,147 stars). AstrBot is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; botman is written in PHP under MIT. AstrBot has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, botman 13%. AstrBot 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 | botman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-04-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 812 |
| 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 botman if
- You want the botman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and botman 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 botman
BotMan If you want to learn how to create reusable PHP packages yourself, take a look at my upcoming PHP Package Development video course. About BotMan BotMan is a framework agnostic PHP library that is designed to simplify the task of developing innovative bots for multiple messaging platforms, including Slack, Telegram, Microsoft Bot Framework, Nexmo, HipChat, Facebook Messenger and WeChat. If you want to learn how to create reusable PHP packages yourself, take a look at my upcoming PHP Package Development video course. Documentation You can find the BotMan documentation at Stand Alone Configuration If you are…
read the full botman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is AstrBot or botman more popular?
AstrBot has 45,992 GitHub stars and botman has 6,147. AstrBot has the larger community by that measure.
Are AstrBot and botman free?
Both are open source. AstrBot is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and botman under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between AstrBot and botman?
AstrBot is written in Python and botman in PHP. 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 botman?
Choose AstrBot if you want the larger community (45,992 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose botman if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.