head to head · open source
caveman vs Dyad
caveman has 116,900 GitHub stars, 6,789 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dyad has 22,166 stars, 2,787 forks, 359 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caveman leads on adoption by 427% (116,900 vs 22,166 stars). caveman is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Dyad is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. caveman has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Dyad 13%. Dyad was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (anthropic, llm), 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
| caveman | Dyad | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 117K | ★ 22K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caveman if
- You weight community size — 117K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Dyad if
- You want the Dyad feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Dyad fits your workflow better
About caveman
why use many token when few do trick Your AI coding agent bills by the word and writes like it knows that. Caveman make it stop. ▶️ ThePrimeagen reacts: "No way this actually works" 🏆 1 on GitHub Trending · July 2026 · 🥇 1 Repository of the Day on Trendshift · April 2026 1 on Hacker News · 904 points · 366 comments · 8 Product of the Day on Product Hunt 📄 Cited in CAVEWOMAN , an Adobe Research paper that measured caveman style output cutting cost 1.4 to 2.4×, up to 3× · 🧪 Tested by JetBrains on 86 real coding tasks: "costs you nothing measurable in quality" ⚡ One command, no account, no API key. npx skills…
read the full caveman overview →
About Dyad
Dyad Dyad is a local, open source AI app builder. It's fast, private, and fully under your control — like Lovable, v0, or Bolt, but running right on your machine. More info at: 🚀 Features ⚡️ Local : Fast, private and no lock in. 🛠 Bring your own keys : Use your own AI API keys — no vendor lock in. 🖥️ Cross platform : Easy to run on Mac or Windows. 📦 Download No sign up required. Just download and go. 👉 Download for your platform 🤝 Community Join our growing community of AI app builders on Reddit : r/dyadbuilders share your projects and get help from the community! 🛠️ Contributing Dyad is open source (see…
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Frequently asked questions
Is caveman or Dyad more popular?
caveman has 116,900 GitHub stars and Dyad has 22,166. caveman has the larger community by that measure.
Are caveman and Dyad free?
Both are open source. caveman is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Dyad has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between caveman and Dyad?
caveman is written in Go and Dyad 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, caveman or Dyad?
Choose caveman if you want the larger community (116,900 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Dyad if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.