head to head · open source
Cline vs Tabby
Cline has 68,517 GitHub stars, 7,409 forks, 1,288 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tabby has 33,884 stars, 1,788 forks, 335 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Cline leads on adoption by 102% (68,517 vs 33,884 stars). Cline is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Tabby is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. Cline has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Tabby 5%. Cline 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.
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Side by side
| Cline | Tabby | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 69K | ★ 34K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.4K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Cline if
- You weight community size — 69K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Tabby if
- You want the Tabby feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Tabby fits your workflow better
About Cline
Cline is an open source AI coding agent that operates across multiple interfaces: as a CLI tool, desktop application, VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin, and SDK. It lives in the developer tooling ecosystem and is built with TypeScript under the Apache 2.0 license. The project solves the problem of fragmented AI assisted coding workflows by unifying agent capabilities—code generation, command execution, project wide edits, and human in the loop approval—into a single extensible engine that works consistently across environments.
read the full Cline overview →
About Tabby
Tabby is a self hosted, open source AI coding assistant that acts as an on premises alternative to GitHub Copilot, aimed at developers and engineering teams that want code completion and chat without routing source code through a third party cloud service.
read the full Tabby overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Cline or Tabby more popular?
Cline has 68,517 GitHub stars and Tabby has 33,884. Cline has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cline and Tabby free?
Both are open source. Cline is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Tabby has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Cline and Tabby?
Cline is written in TypeScript and Tabby in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Cline or Tabby?
Choose Cline if you want the larger community (68,517 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Tabby if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.