head to head · open source
Cherry Studio vs Jan
Cherry Studio has 51,923 GitHub stars, 4,976 forks, 1,514 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Jan has 44,512 stars, 3,032 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cherry Studio leads on adoption by 17% (51,923 vs 44,512 stars). Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Jan is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Cherry Studio has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Jan 7%. Cherry Studio 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
| Cherry Studio | Jan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 45K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Cherry Studio if
- You weight community size — 52K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Jan if
- You want the Jan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Jan fits your workflow better
About Cherry Studio
Cherry Studio is a cross platform desktop application for interacting with large language models, built in TypeScript under the AGPL 3.0 license. It operates in the AI interaction and interfaces ecosystem, providing a unified interface to access cloud hosted models (OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic), web services (Claude, Poe, Perplexity), and locally hosted models via Ollama or LM Studio.
read the full Cherry Studio overview →
About Jan
Jan is an open source desktop application that serves as a ChatGPT replacement, enabling users to run large language models (LLMs) locally on their machines or connect to cloud based providers like OpenAI and Anthropic. It is built with Tauri, TypeScript, and integrates llama.cpp for efficient local inference, targeting privacy conscious users who want full control over their AI workflows without sending data to third parties.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Cherry Studio or Jan more popular?
Cherry Studio has 51,923 GitHub stars and Jan has 44,512. Cherry Studio has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cherry Studio and Jan free?
Both are open source. Cherry Studio is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Jan has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Cherry Studio and Jan?
Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript and Jan 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, Cherry Studio or Jan?
Choose Cherry Studio if you want the larger community (51,923 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Jan if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.