head to head · open source
chatbox vs errbot
chatbox has 42,247 GitHub stars, 4,307 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. errbot has 3,312 stars, 628 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. chatbox leads on adoption by 1,176% (42,247 vs 3,312 stars). chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; errbot is written in Python under GPL-3.0. chatbox has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, errbot 19%. chatbox 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
| chatbox | errbot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 628 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick chatbox if
- You weight community size — 42K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick errbot if
- You want the errbot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and errbot fits your workflow better
About chatbox
English 简体中文 Chatbox (Community Edition) Your Ultimate AI Copilot on the Desktop. Chatbox is a desktop client for ChatGPT, Claude and other LLMs, available on Windows, Mac, Linux This is the repository for the Chatbox Community Edition, open sourced under the GPLv3 license. Chatbox is going open source Again! We regularly sync code from the pro repo to this repo, and vice versa. Download Desktop Windows MacOS Linux Setup.exe Intel Apple Silicon AppImage iOS/Android .APK For more information: chatboxai.app Quick Start For End Users 1. Download the appropriate installer for your platform from the releases page 2…
read the full chatbox overview →
About errbot
.. image:: :target: .. image:: :target: .. image:: :target: :alt: Latest Version .. image:: :target: :alt: License .. image:: :target: :alt: Join the chat at Errbot ====== Errbot is a chatbot. It allows you to start scripts interactively from your chatrooms for any reason: random humour, chatops, starting a build, monitoring commits, triggering alerts... It is written and easily extensible in Python. Errbot is available as open source software and released under the GPL v3 license. Features Chat servers support Built in IRC support Telegram support XMPP support With add ons Slack support (See instructions )…
read the full errbot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is chatbox or errbot more popular?
chatbox has 42,247 GitHub stars and errbot has 3,312. chatbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are chatbox and errbot free?
Both are open source. chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0 and errbot under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chatbox and errbot?
chatbox is written in TypeScript and errbot in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, chatbox or errbot?
Choose chatbox if you want the larger community (42,247 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose errbot if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.