head to head · open source
OpenClaw vs chatbox
OpenClaw has 393,747 GitHub stars, 82,755 forks, 6,671 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chatbox has 42,236 stars, 4,303 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. OpenClaw leads on adoption by 832% (393,747 vs 42,236 stars). OpenClaw is written in TypeScript under MIT; chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. OpenClaw has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, chatbox 10%. OpenClaw was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (assistant), 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
| OpenClaw | chatbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 394K | ★ 42K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 83K | ⑂ 4.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenClaw if
- You weight community size — 394K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chatbox if
- You want the chatbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and chatbox fits your workflow better
About OpenClaw
OpenClaw 🦞 — Your assistant, on your devices, in your chats OpenClaw is an open source AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the channels you already use: Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, and 20+ more, plus native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux. One Gateway runs it as a personal assistant on a laptop or as a shared team deployment; configuration is the only difference. Yours, with no catch. State, memory, and credentials live on your hardware. Models and agent harnesses (Claude, Codex, local models) are plugins you can swap without changing anything…
read the full OpenClaw overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenClaw or chatbox more popular?
OpenClaw has 393,747 GitHub stars and chatbox has 42,236. OpenClaw has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenClaw and chatbox free?
Both are open source. OpenClaw is licensed under MIT and chatbox under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenClaw and chatbox?
OpenClaw is written in TypeScript and chatbox 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, OpenClaw or chatbox?
Choose OpenClaw if you want the larger community (393,747 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose chatbox if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.