head to head · open source
chatbox vs HuLa
chatbox has 41,814 GitHub stars, 4,253 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. HuLa has 7,722 stars, 1,042 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. chatbox leads on adoption by 441% (41,814 vs 7,722 stars). chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; HuLa is written in Vue under Apache-2.0. chatbox has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, HuLa 13%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| chatbox | HuLa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 7.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 HuLa if
- You want the HuLa feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and HuLa fits your workflow better
About chatbox
Chatbox (Community Edition) is a cross platform desktop client for large language models, written in TypeScript and released under the GPL 3.0 license. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and it connects to a range of providers including OpenAI (ChatGPT), Azure OpenAI, Claude, Google Gemini Pro, Ollama and ChatGLM 6B. The project lives in the AI interaction and interfaces ecosystem, where desktop chat front ends sit between a user and one or more hosted or locally hosted model APIs. The repository carries 41,767 stars and 4,251 forks across four years of history.
read the full chatbox overview →
About HuLa
HuLa is an open source, cross platform instant messaging system built on Tauri, Vite 7, Vue 3 and TypeScript, aimed at teams and individuals who want a performant chat client they can run on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS without depending on a hosted messenger they do not control.
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Interaction & Interfaces projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Interaction & Interfaces field.
Frequently asked questions
Is chatbox or HuLa more popular?
chatbox has 41,814 GitHub stars and HuLa has 7,722. chatbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are chatbox and HuLa free?
Both are open source. chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0 and HuLa under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chatbox and HuLa?
chatbox is written in TypeScript and HuLa in Vue. 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 HuLa?
Choose chatbox if you want the larger community (41,814 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose HuLa if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.