head to head · open source
Jan vs reins
Jan has 44,949 GitHub stars, 3,098 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped today. reins has 550 stars, 91 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Jan leads on adoption by 8,073% (44,949 vs 550 stars). Jan is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; reins is written in Dart under GPL-3.0. Jan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, reins 17%. 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 | reins | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 550 |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Dart |
| Last push | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 91 |
| 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 Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick reins if
- You want the reins feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- You evaluated both and reins 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 reins
Reins is a private, local AI chat app for iPhone, iPad and Mac that connects to Ollama, LM Studio or any OpenAI compatible server, or runs MLX and Apple Foundation Models on device, and it is built for Apple users who want LLM conversations without an account, without cloud uploads and without data collection.
read the full reins overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jan or reins more popular?
Jan has 44,949 GitHub stars and reins has 550. Jan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jan and reins free?
Both are open source. Jan has no licence declared in this registry, and reins is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jan and reins?
Jan is written in Rust and reins in Dart. 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 reins?
Choose Jan if you want the larger community (44,949 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose reins if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.