head to head · open source
Cherry Studio vs k-dense-byok
Cherry Studio has 53,265 GitHub stars, 5,178 forks, 1,514 open issues and last shipped yesterday. k-dense-byok has 1,425 stars, 188 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. Cherry Studio leads on adoption by 3,638% (53,265 vs 1,425 stars). Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; k-dense-byok is written in TypeScript under MIT. Cherry Studio has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, k-dense-byok 13%. Cherry Studio was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ollama), 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
| Cherry Studio | k-dense-byok | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 53K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 188 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Cherry Studio if
- You weight community size — 53K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick k-dense-byok if
- You want the k-dense-byok feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and k-dense-byok fits your workflow better
About Cherry Studio
English Official Site Documents Development Feedback [![][deepwiki shield]][deepwiki link] [![][twitter shield]][twitter link] [![][discord shield]][discord link] [![][telegram shield]][telegram link] [![][github release shield]][github release link] [![][github nightly shield]][github nightly link] [![][github contributors shield]][github contributors link] [![][license shield]][license link] [![][commercial shield]][commercial link] [![][sponsor shield]][sponsor link] 🍒 Cherry Studio Cherry Studio is a desktop client that supports multiple LLM providers, available on Windows, Mac and Linux. 👏 Join Telegram…
read the full Cherry Studio overview →
About k-dense-byok
K Dense BYOK 🎥 Webinar recording: Getting Started with K Dense BYOK An online walkthrough of installing Kady and running your first research task, with live Q&A. 👉 Watch the recording on YouTube Your own AI research assistant, running on your computer, powered by the accounts and API keys you choose. K Dense BYOK (Bring Your Own Keys) is a free, open source app that gives you Kady — an AI research assistant for scientists in any field. Describe a task in plain language — analyze this dataset , review my manuscript , search the literature , build this figure — and Kady works through it in a complete research…
read the full k-dense-byok overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Cherry Studio or k-dense-byok more popular?
Cherry Studio has 53,265 GitHub stars and k-dense-byok has 1,425. Cherry Studio has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cherry Studio and k-dense-byok free?
Both are open source. Cherry Studio is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and k-dense-byok under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Cherry Studio and k-dense-byok?
Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript and k-dense-byok 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, Cherry Studio or k-dense-byok?
Choose Cherry Studio if you want the larger community (53,265 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose k-dense-byok if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.