head to head · open source
odysseus vs Jan
odysseus has 94,935 GitHub stars, 1,862 forks, 1,233 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Jan has 45,332 stars, 3,133 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped yesterday. odysseus leads on adoption by 109% (94,935 vs 45,332 stars). odysseus is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; Jan is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. odysseus has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, Jan 7%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| odysseus | Jan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 95K | ★ 45K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick odysseus if
- You weight community size — 95K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 Rust
- You evaluated both and Jan fits your workflow better
About odysseus
A self hosted AI workspace for chat, agents, research, documents, email, notes, calendar, and local model workflows. Quick Start · Setup Guide · Contributing · Roadmap Quick Start dev is the default branch and gets the newest changes first. Use main if you want the more curated branch. Open when the containers are healthy. The first admin password is printed in docker compose logs odysseus . Native installs, GPU notes, Windows/macOS instructions, HTTPS, and configuration live in the setup guide. Features Chat + Agents — local/API models, tools, MCP, files, shell, skills, and memory. Cookbook — hardware aware…
read the full odysseus overview →
About Jan
Jan Open source ChatGPT replacement English · 中文 · 日本語 Getting Started Community Changelog Bug reports Jan is bringing the best of open source AI in an easy to use product. Download and run LLMs with full control and privacy . Installation The easiest way to get started is by downloading one of the following versions for your respective operating system: Platform Download Windows jan.exe macOS jan.dmg Linux (deb) jan.deb Linux (AppImage) jan.AppImage Linux (Arm64) How to Download from jan.ai or GitHub Releases. Features Local AI Models : Download and run LLMs (Llama, Gemma, Qwen, GPT oss etc.) from HuggingFace…
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Interaction & Interfaces projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Interaction & Interfaces field.
Frequently asked questions
Is odysseus or Jan more popular?
odysseus has 94,935 GitHub stars and Jan has 45,332. odysseus has the larger community by that measure.
Are odysseus and Jan free?
Both are open source. odysseus 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 odysseus and Jan?
odysseus is written in Python and Jan in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, odysseus or Jan?
Choose odysseus if you want the larger community (94,935 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.