head to head · open source
kotaemon vs Swirl Search
kotaemon has 25,776 GitHub stars, 2,156 forks, 247 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Swirl Search has 3,045 stars, 286 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. kotaemon leads on adoption by 747% (25,776 vs 3,045 stars). kotaemon is written in Python under Apache-2.0; Swirl Search is written in Python under Apache-2.0. kotaemon has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Swirl Search 9%. Swirl Search was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (rag), 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
| kotaemon | Swirl Search | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-07-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 286 |
| 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 Swirl Search if
- You want the Swirl Search 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 Swirl Search 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 Swirl Search
Swirl Search is an open source federated AI search and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) platform written in Python and built on Django. It lives in the AI and machine learning ecosystem, specifically the AI interaction and interface space, and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license as SWIRL Community. The project queries more than 100 connected sources live, ranks the combined results, and optionally generates an answer with citations using a large language model of the operator's choice. It ships with the Galaxy UI, the same interface used by the commercial SWIRL Enterprise edition.
read the full Swirl Search overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kotaemon or Swirl Search more popular?
kotaemon has 25,776 GitHub stars and Swirl Search has 3,045. kotaemon has the larger community by that measure.
Are kotaemon and Swirl Search free?
Both are open source. kotaemon is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Swirl Search under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kotaemon and Swirl Search?
kotaemon is written in Python and Swirl Search 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 Swirl Search?
Choose kotaemon if you want the larger community (25,776 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Swirl Search if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.