head to head · open source
chatbox vs Leon
chatbox has 42,236 GitHub stars, 4,303 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Leon has 17,629 stars, 1,479 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chatbox leads on adoption by 140% (42,236 vs 17,629 stars). chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; Leon is written in TypeScript under MIT. chatbox has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Leon 8%. Leon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (assistant, 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 | Leon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 18K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 Leon if
- You want the Leon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Leon 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 Leon
Leon Your open source personal AI assistant. I share Leon progress most regularly on X / @grenlouis Follow progress on X / @grenlouis · Website · Newsletter · Roadmap · Story ⚠️ Important Notice (as of 2026 03 29) [!IMPORTANT] Leon is currently focused on the 2.0 Developer Preview on the develop branch. The new documentation is not ready yet . The current docs site and older guides mostly reflect the legacy architecture. If you want the legacy, more stable pre agentic version of Leon, use the master branch. If you want to explore or contribute to Leon's new core, develop is the right place. The most accurate…
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Frequently asked questions
Is chatbox or Leon more popular?
chatbox has 42,236 GitHub stars and Leon has 17,629. chatbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are chatbox and Leon free?
Both are open source. chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Leon under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chatbox and Leon?
chatbox is written in TypeScript and Leon 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, chatbox or Leon?
Choose chatbox if you want the larger community (42,236 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Leon if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.