head to head · open source
eliza vs Swirl Search
eliza has 19,376 GitHub stars, 5,747 forks, 1,069 open issues and last shipped today. Swirl Search has 3,045 stars, 286 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. eliza leads on adoption by 536% (19,376 vs 3,045 stars). eliza is written in TypeScript under MIT; Swirl Search is written in Python under Apache-2.0. eliza has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, Swirl Search 9%. eliza was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (rag), 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
| eliza | Swirl Search | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.7K | ⑂ 286 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick eliza if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Swirl Search if
- You want the Swirl Search feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Swirl Search fits your workflow better
About eliza
elizaOS is an open source, MIT licensed TypeScript framework and product stack for autonomous AI agents, built for developers who want to run or extend their own agent runtime and for end users who want a personal agent app on web, desktop, and mobile.
read the full eliza overview →
About Swirl Search
Swirl Search is an open source federated AI search and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) platform written in Python and built on Django. It lives in the AI and machine learning ecosystem, specifically the AI interaction and interface space, and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license as SWIRL Community. The project queries more than 100 connected sources live, ranks the combined results, and optionally generates an answer with citations using a large language model of the operator's choice. It ships with the Galaxy UI, the same interface used by the commercial SWIRL Enterprise edition.
read the full Swirl Search overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is eliza or Swirl Search more popular?
eliza has 19,376 GitHub stars and Swirl Search has 3,045. eliza has the larger community by that measure.
Are eliza and Swirl Search free?
Both are open source. eliza is licensed under MIT and Swirl Search under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between eliza and Swirl Search?
eliza is written in TypeScript and Swirl Search in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, eliza or Swirl Search?
Choose eliza if you want the larger community (19,376 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Swirl Search if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.