head to head · open source
Jan vs HuixiangDou
Jan has 44,566 GitHub stars, 3,040 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HuixiangDou has 2,502 stars, 179 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Jan leads on adoption by 1,681% (44,566 vs 2,502 stars). Jan is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; HuixiangDou is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. Jan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, HuixiangDou 7%. Jan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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
| Jan | HuixiangDou | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2025-11-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 179 |
| 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 HuixiangDou if
- You want the HuixiangDou feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and HuixiangDou 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 HuixiangDou
HuixiangDou is a Python, BSD 3 Clause licensed LLM based professional knowledge assistant that answers technical questions inside group chats such as WeChat and Feishu/Lark without flooding the channel with messages, and it is built for teams that maintain an internal or public facing support knowledge base.
read the full HuixiangDou overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jan or HuixiangDou more popular?
Jan has 44,566 GitHub stars and HuixiangDou has 2,502. Jan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jan and HuixiangDou free?
Both are open source. Jan has no licence declared in this registry, and HuixiangDou is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jan and HuixiangDou?
Jan is written in TypeScript and HuixiangDou 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, Jan or HuixiangDou?
Choose Jan if you want the larger community (44,566 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose HuixiangDou if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.