head to head · open source
Cline vs Dyad
Cline has 68,517 GitHub stars, 7,409 forks, 1,288 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dyad has 21,575 stars, 2,636 forks, 359 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cline leads on adoption by 218% (68,517 vs 21,575 stars). Cline is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Dyad is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Cline has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Dyad 12%. 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 | Dyad | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 69K | ★ 22K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.4K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| 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 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 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 Dyad
Dyad is a local, open source AI app builder for developer tools and AI assisted coding. It is positioned as a desktop alternative to hosted builders such as Lovable, v0, and Bolt, running on the user's own machine. The project is written in TypeScript and distributed through a public GitHub repository under a split license: code outside src/pro is Apache 2.0, while code inside src/pro is Functional Source License 1.1 Apache 2.0.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Cline or Dyad more popular?
Cline has 68,517 GitHub stars and Dyad has 21,575. Cline has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cline and Dyad free?
Both are open source. Cline 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 Cline and Dyad?
Cline is written in TypeScript 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, Cline or Dyad?
Choose Cline if you want the larger community (68,517 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.