head to head · open source
Langchain-Chatchat vs botman
Langchain-Chatchat has 38,643 GitHub stars, 6,266 forks, 26 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. botman has 6,160 stars, 812 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Langchain-Chatchat leads on adoption by 527% (38,643 vs 6,160 stars). Langchain-Chatchat is written in Python under Apache-2.0; botman is written in PHP under MIT. Langchain-Chatchat has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, botman 13%. botman was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (chatbot), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Langchain-Chatchat | botman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2025-11-10 | 2026-04-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.3K | ⑂ 812 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Langchain-Chatchat if
- You weight community size — 39K 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 botman if
- You want the botman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and botman fits your workflow better
About Langchain-Chatchat
Langchain Chatchat (formerly Langchain ChatGLM) is an open source RAG and Agent application built on the Langchain framework and designed to run against local large language models such as ChatGLM, Qwen, and Llama. It lives in the Python ecosystem, is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license, and is published on PyPI as langchain chatchat . The project targets Chinese language scenarios and open source models specifically, with the stated goal of providing a knowledge base question answering solution that can run entirely offline.
read the full Langchain-Chatchat overview →
About botman
BotMan is a framework agnostic PHP library for building chat bots that run across multiple messaging platforms from a single codebase, aimed at PHP developers and Laravel teams who want cross platform bot logic without writing separate integration code for every service.
read the full botman 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 Langchain-Chatchat or botman more popular?
Langchain-Chatchat has 38,643 GitHub stars and botman has 6,160. Langchain-Chatchat has the larger community by that measure.
Are Langchain-Chatchat and botman free?
Both are open source. Langchain-Chatchat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and botman under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Langchain-Chatchat and botman?
Langchain-Chatchat is written in Python and botman in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Langchain-Chatchat or botman?
Choose Langchain-Chatchat if you want the larger community (38,643 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose botman if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.