head to head · open source
kotaemon vs Pipeshub
kotaemon has 25,856 GitHub stars, 2,164 forks, 247 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Pipeshub has 3,905 stars, 635 forks, 172 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kotaemon leads on adoption by 562% (25,856 vs 3,905 stars). kotaemon is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Pipeshub is written in Python under Apache-2.0. kotaemon has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Pipeshub 16%. Pipeshub 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.
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Side by side
| kotaemon | Pipeshub | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-07-14 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 635 |
| 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 Pipeshub if
- You want the Pipeshub 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 Pipeshub fits your workflow better
About kotaemon
kotaemon An open source clean & customizable RAG UI for chatting with your documents. Built with both end users and developers in mind. Live Demo 1 Live Demo 2 Online Install Colab Notebook (Local RAG) User Guide Developer Guide Feedback Contact Introduction This project serves as a functional RAG UI for both end users who want to do QA on their documents and developers who want to build their own RAG pipeline. For end users Clean & Minimalistic UI : A user friendly interface for RAG based QA. Support for Various LLMs : Compatible with LLM API providers (OpenAI, AzureOpenAI, Cohere, etc.) and local LLMs (via…
read the full kotaemon overview →
About Pipeshub
The Open Source Workplace AI Platform Website · Docs · Discord · Roadmap Translations: Français · Deutsch · 简体中文 · 日本語 · Русский · עברית · 한국어 · Español · Português · Türkçe · Tiếng Việt · Italiano PipesHub Explainable & Extensible PipesHub is an open source platform for connecting AI applications to the knowledge stored across your company's business systems. Connect Slack, Google Drive, GitHub, Microsoft 365, Notion and 50+ other systems. Search across them and get answers with citations, filtered by what each person is allowed to see — or give that same context to your own agents, workflows and MCP clients…
read the full Pipeshub overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kotaemon or Pipeshub more popular?
kotaemon has 25,856 GitHub stars and Pipeshub has 3,905. kotaemon has the larger community by that measure.
Are kotaemon and Pipeshub free?
Both are open source. kotaemon is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pipeshub under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kotaemon and Pipeshub?
kotaemon is written in Python and Pipeshub 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, kotaemon or Pipeshub?
Choose kotaemon if you want the larger community (25,856 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Pipeshub if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.