head to head · open source
Jan vs openhuman
Jan has 44,512 GitHub stars, 3,032 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openhuman has 39,838 stars, 3,928 forks, 189 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Jan leads on adoption by 12% (44,512 vs 39,838 stars). Jan is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; openhuman is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. Jan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, openhuman 10%. Jan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (llm, tauri), 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 | openhuman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 40K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 3.9K |
| 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 openhuman if
- You want the openhuman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and openhuman 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 openhuman
OpenHuman is an open source, GPL 3.0 licensed agent harness written in Rust and shipped as a Tauri desktop application, aimed at individuals who want a personal AI assistant whose memory, orchestration, and research tooling run local first on their own machine.
read the full openhuman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jan or openhuman more popular?
Jan has 44,512 GitHub stars and openhuman has 39,838. Jan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jan and openhuman free?
Both are open source. Jan has no licence declared in this registry, and openhuman is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jan and openhuman?
Jan is written in TypeScript and openhuman 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, Jan or openhuman?
Choose Jan if you want the larger community (44,512 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose openhuman if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.