head to head · open source
cobalt vs chitchatter
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 269 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. chitchatter has 2,330 stars, 434 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cobalt leads on adoption by 1,759% (43,316 vs 2,330 stars). cobalt is written in Svelte under AGPL-3.0; chitchatter is written in TypeScript under GPL-2.0. cobalt has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, chitchatter 19%. chitchatter 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
| cobalt | chitchatter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Svelte | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-04-06 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 434 |
| 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 chitchatter if
- You want the chitchatter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and chitchatter 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 chitchatter
Chitchatter is a TypeScript web chat application released under GPL 2.0 that provides secure peer to peer communication without a required central API server. It lives in the decentralized web mesh ecosystem, using React, WebRTC, Trystero, WebTorrent, and TURN relays to connect browsers directly. The project is a free, open source collaboration tool for private conversations, video and audio chats, screen sharing, and file transfer.
read the full chitchatter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cobalt or chitchatter more popular?
cobalt has 43,316 GitHub stars and chitchatter has 2,330. cobalt has the larger community by that measure.
Are cobalt and chitchatter free?
Both are open source. cobalt is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and chitchatter under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cobalt and chitchatter?
cobalt is written in Svelte and chitchatter 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, cobalt or chitchatter?
Choose cobalt if you want the larger community (43,316 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose chitchatter if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.