head to head · open source
chatbox vs poco-claw
chatbox has 42,247 GitHub stars, 4,307 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. poco-claw has 1,357 stars, 129 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. chatbox leads on adoption by 3,013% (42,247 vs 1,357 stars). chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; poco-claw is written in Python under MIT. chatbox has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, poco-claw 10%. chatbox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chatbot, claude-code), 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 | poco-claw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 129 |
| 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 poco-claw if
- You want the poco-claw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and poco-claw 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 poco-claw
Poco: Your Pocket Coworker A safer, more beautiful, and easier to use OpenClaw alternative English 简体中文 Core Features Server and Channel Collaboration Work in long lived servers with channels, DMs, and reply threads. Mention persistent agents in the conversation, turn messages into trackable tasks, inspect execution progress in the drawer, and publish outputs into shared files for people and other agents to reuse. Secure Sandbox All tasks run in an isolated container. Feel free to install dependencies, modify files, and execute commands — without affecting the host environment. Local Directory Mounting — mount…
read the full poco-claw overview →
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 poco-claw more popular?
chatbox has 42,247 GitHub stars and poco-claw has 1,357. chatbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are chatbox and poco-claw free?
Both are open source. chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0 and poco-claw under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chatbox and poco-claw?
chatbox is written in TypeScript and poco-claw 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 poco-claw?
Choose chatbox if you want the larger community (42,247 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose poco-claw if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.