head to head · open source
chatbox vs MaxKB
chatbox has 41,791 GitHub stars, 4,252 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. MaxKB has 22,824 stars, 3,156 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chatbox leads on adoption by 83% (41,791 vs 22,824 stars). chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; MaxKB is written in Python under GPL-3.0. chatbox has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, MaxKB 14%. MaxKB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chatbot, ollama), 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 | MaxKB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 23K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| 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 MaxKB if
- You want the MaxKB 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 MaxKB 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 MaxKB
MaxKB is an open source Python platform for building enterprise grade agents in the AI and machine learning ecosystem. It combines a web interface, LangChain based retrieval augmented generation, workflow orchestration, and MCP tool use so organizations can connect large language models to their own documents, systems, and business processes. The project is positioned as a knowledge brain deployed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
read the full MaxKB overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is chatbox or MaxKB more popular?
chatbox has 41,791 GitHub stars and MaxKB has 22,824. chatbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are chatbox and MaxKB free?
Both are open source. chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0 and MaxKB under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chatbox and MaxKB?
chatbox is written in TypeScript and MaxKB 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 MaxKB?
Choose chatbox if you want the larger community (41,791 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose MaxKB if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.