head to head · open source
cobalt vs chat
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. chat has 13,508 stars, 2,078 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. cobalt leads on adoption by 221% (43,316 vs 13,508 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; chat is written in Go under GPL-3.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, chat 15%. chat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (collaboration), 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
| cobalt | chat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 14K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | Go |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-09-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cobalt if
- You weight community size — 43K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Svelte
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chat if
- You want the chat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and chat fits your workflow better
About cobalt
cobalt is a media downloader built around a single promise: paste a link, get the file, move on. It is a monorepo containing the source for an API, a web frontend, and related packages, written primarily in Svelte and TypeScript. The project lives in the modern web and JavaScript ecosystem, and its public surface is hosted at cobalt.tools, while the full codebase is published under the AGPL 3.0 license.
read the full cobalt overview →
About chat
Tinode is an open source, full stack instant messaging server that pairs a Go backend with native iOS, Android, web, and command line clients, built for developers and operators who want to run or federate their own messaging platform rather than rent one.
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or chat more popular?
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars and chat has 13,508. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and chat free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and chat under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and chat?
cobalt is written in Svelte and chat in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cobalt or chat?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (43,316 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose chat if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.