head to head · open source
chatbox vs Sidekick
chatbox has 42,247 GitHub stars, 4,307 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Sidekick has 3,322 stars, 146 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. chatbox leads on adoption by 1,172% (42,247 vs 3,322 stars). chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; Sidekick is written in Swift under MIT. chatbox has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Sidekick 4%. 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, deepseek), 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 | Sidekick | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-09-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 146 |
| 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 Sidekick if
- You want the Sidekick feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and Sidekick 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 Sidekick
Sidekick Chat with a local LLM that can respond with information from your files, folders and websites on your Mac without installing any other software. All conversations happen offline, and your data stays secure. Sidekick is a local first application –– with a built in inference engine for local models, while accommodating OpenAI compatible APIs for additional model options. Sidekick supports modern GGUF local models such as Qwen3.5 out of the box through its built in llama.cpp backend. Example Use Let’s say you're collecting evidence for a History paper about interactions between Aztecs and Spanish troops…
read the full Sidekick overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is chatbox or Sidekick more popular?
chatbox has 42,247 GitHub stars and Sidekick has 3,322. chatbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are chatbox and Sidekick free?
Both are open source. chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Sidekick under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chatbox and Sidekick?
chatbox is written in TypeScript and Sidekick in Swift. 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 Sidekick?
Choose chatbox if you want the larger community (42,247 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Sidekick if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.