head to head · open source
Jan vs eliza
Jan has 44,516 GitHub stars, 3,032 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped today. eliza has 19,355 stars, 5,740 forks, 1,069 open issues and last shipped today. Jan leads on adoption by 130% (44,516 vs 19,355 stars). Jan is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; eliza is written in TypeScript under MIT. Jan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, eliza 30%. Jan 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
| Jan | eliza | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 19K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 5.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Jan if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick eliza if
- You want the eliza feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and eliza fits your workflow better
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.
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jan or eliza more popular?
Jan has 44,516 GitHub stars and eliza has 19,355. Jan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jan and eliza free?
Both are open source. Jan has no licence declared in this registry, and eliza is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jan and eliza?
Jan is written in TypeScript and eliza 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, Jan or eliza?
Choose Jan if you want the larger community (44,516 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose eliza if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.