head to head · open source
chatbox vs wechaty
chatbox has 42,236 GitHub stars, 4,303 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. wechaty has 23,476 stars, 2,908 forks, 198 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. chatbox leads on adoption by 80% (42,236 vs 23,476 stars). chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; wechaty is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. chatbox has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, wechaty 12%. chatbox was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (chatbot), 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 | wechaty | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 23K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2025-12-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.3K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| 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 wechaty if
- You want the wechaty 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 wechaty 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 wechaty
Wechaty Ship.Fail PreAngel Elevator Pitch Wechaty is a conversational RPA SDK that simplifies the process of building chatbots. It's like a Swiss Army knife for chatbot development, providing a universal interface to various messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and more. With Wechaty, you write your bot code once, and it runs on any of the supported platforms. This means you can focus on creating engaging conversational experiences without worrying about the underlying complexities of each platform's API. It's open source, easy to use, and backed by a vibrant community that's ready to help you bring…
read the full wechaty overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is chatbox or wechaty more popular?
chatbox has 42,236 GitHub stars and wechaty has 23,476. chatbox has the larger community by that measure.
Are chatbox and wechaty free?
Both are open source. chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0 and wechaty under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between chatbox and wechaty?
chatbox is written in TypeScript and wechaty 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 wechaty?
Choose chatbox if you want the larger community (42,236 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose wechaty if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.