head to head · open source
kotaemon vs deepchat
kotaemon has 25,769 GitHub stars, 2,156 forks, 247 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. deepchat has 6,328 stars, 734 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kotaemon leads on adoption by 307% (25,769 vs 6,328 stars). kotaemon is written in Python under Apache-2.0; deepchat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. kotaemon has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, deepchat 12%. deepchat 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 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| kotaemon | deepchat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 734 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kotaemon if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick deepchat if
- You want the deepchat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and deepchat fits your workflow better
About kotaemon
kotaemon is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed Python project that provides a clean and customizable retrieval augmented generation (RAG) UI for chatting with documents. It sits in the AI and machine learning ecosystem, specifically under AI interaction and interfaces, and is built on Gradio so that the interface itself can be extended or modified. The README frames the project as serving two distinct audiences at once: end users who want to do question answering over their own files, and developers who want to build their own RAG pipeline on top of the framework.
read the full kotaemon overview →
About deepchat
DeepChat is an open source, local first AI agent desktop client built with TypeScript under the Apache 2.0 license. It lives in the AI interaction and interfaces ecosystem, distributed as a cross platform Electron application, and it gathers models, tools, Skills, agent runtimes, Tape, and long running sessions into a single desktop app. Cloud APIs such as OpenAI, Gemini, and Anthropic work alongside locally deployed Ollama models, and any provider exposing an OpenAI, Gemini, or Anthropic API format can be connected.
read the full deepchat overview →
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 kotaemon or deepchat more popular?
kotaemon has 25,769 GitHub stars and deepchat has 6,328. kotaemon has the larger community by that measure.
Are kotaemon and deepchat free?
Both are open source. kotaemon is licensed under Apache-2.0 and deepchat under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kotaemon and deepchat?
kotaemon is written in Python and deepchat in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kotaemon or deepchat?
Choose kotaemon if you want the larger community (25,769 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose deepchat if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.