head to head · open source
chatbox vs sim
chatbox has 42,253 GitHub stars, 4,307 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. sim has 29,984 stars, 3,883 forks, 336 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chatbox leads on adoption by 41% (42,253 vs 29,984 stars). chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; sim is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. chatbox has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, sim 13%. sim was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (chatbot, deepseek, gemini), 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 | sim | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 30K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 3.9K |
| 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 sim if
- You want the sim feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sim 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 sim
A workspace to build, deploy and manage AI agents and workflows. Quickstart Cloud hosted: sim.ai Self hosted Open Desktop: macOS macOS 12+, Apple Silicon and Intel. See the desktop docs to point it at a self hosted deployment. Capabilities Connect 1,000+ integrations and every major LLM Add Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, databases, and more Build agents visually, conversationally, or with code Ingest files, knowledge bases, and structured table data Monitor runs, logs, schedules, and workflow activity One workspace, every surface Chat and workflows are just the start — tables, files, and knowledge all live…
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Frequently asked questions
Is chatbox or sim more popular?
chatbox has 42,253 GitHub stars and sim has 29,984. chatbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are chatbox and sim free?
Both are open source. chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0 and sim under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chatbox and sim?
chatbox is written in TypeScript and sim 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 sim?
Choose chatbox if you want the larger community (42,253 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose sim if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.