head to head · open source
Jan vs Langchain-Chatchat
Jan has 44,512 GitHub stars, 3,032 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Langchain-Chatchat has 38,641 stars, 6,263 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Jan leads on adoption by 15% (44,512 vs 38,641 stars). Jan is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Langchain-Chatchat is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Jan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Langchain-Chatchat 16%. Jan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chatgpt, gpt), 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 | Langchain-Chatchat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 39K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-11-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 6.3K |
| 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 Langchain-Chatchat if
- You want the Langchain-Chatchat 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 Langchain-Chatchat 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 Langchain-Chatchat
Langchain Chatchat (formerly Langchain ChatGLM) is an open source RAG and Agent application built on the Langchain framework and designed to run against local large language models such as ChatGLM, Qwen, and Llama. It lives in the Python ecosystem, is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, and is published on PyPI as langchain chatchat . The project targets Chinese language scenarios and open source models specifically, with the stated goal of providing a knowledge base question answering solution that can run entirely offline.
read the full Langchain-Chatchat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jan or Langchain-Chatchat more popular?
Jan has 44,512 GitHub stars and Langchain-Chatchat has 38,641. Jan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jan and Langchain-Chatchat free?
Both are open source. Jan has no licence declared in this registry, and Langchain-Chatchat is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jan and Langchain-Chatchat?
Jan is written in TypeScript and Langchain-Chatchat 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 Langchain-Chatchat?
Choose Jan if you want the larger community (44,512 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Langchain-Chatchat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.