head to head · open source
Cherry Studio vs Leon
Cherry Studio has 53,173 GitHub stars, 5,156 forks, 1,514 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Leon has 17,627 stars, 1,477 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cherry Studio leads on adoption by 202% (53,173 vs 17,627 stars). Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Leon is written in TypeScript under MIT. Cherry Studio has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Leon 8%. Cherry Studio was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Cherry Studio | Leon | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 53K | ★ 18K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 Leon if
- You want the Leon feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Leon 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 Leon
Leon Your open source personal AI assistant. I share Leon progress most regularly on X / @grenlouis Follow progress on X / @grenlouis · Website · Newsletter · Roadmap · Story ⚠️ Important Notice (as of 2026 03 29) [!IMPORTANT] Leon is currently focused on the 2.0 Developer Preview on the develop branch. The new documentation is not ready yet . The current docs site and older guides mostly reflect the legacy architecture. If you want the legacy, more stable pre agentic version of Leon, use the master branch. If you want to explore or contribute to Leon's new core, develop is the right place. The most accurate…
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 Cherry Studio or Leon more popular?
Cherry Studio has 53,173 GitHub stars and Leon has 17,627. Cherry Studio has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cherry Studio and Leon free?
Both are open source. Cherry Studio is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Leon under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Cherry Studio and Leon?
Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript and Leon 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 Leon?
Choose Cherry Studio if you want the larger community (53,173 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Leon if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.