head to head · open source
LobeChat vs ai
LobeChat has 83,716 GitHub stars, 16,033 forks, 922 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ai has 3,325 stars, 380 forks, 89 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LobeChat leads on adoption by 2,418% (83,716 vs 3,325 stars). LobeChat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; ai is written in TypeScript under MIT. LobeChat has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, ai 11%. LobeChat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, gemini), 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
| LobeChat | ai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 84K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 380 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LobeChat if
- You weight community size — 84K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ai if
- You want the ai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ai fits your workflow better
About LobeChat
[![][image banner]][vercel link] LobeHub LobeHub organizes your agents into 7×24 operation. It hires, schedules, reports on your entire AI team. You stay in charge — without staying online. English · 简体中文 · [Official Site][official site] · [Changelog][changelog] · [Documents][docs] · [Blog][blog] · [Feedback][github issues link] [![][github release shield]][github release link] [![][docker release shield]][docker release link] [![][vercel shield]][vercel link] [![][discord shield]][discord link] [![][codecov shield]][codecov link] [![][github action test shield]][github action test link] [![][github action…
read the full LobeChat overview →
About ai
TanStack AI Type safe, provider agnostic TypeScript SDK for building streaming chat, tool calling agents, structured outputs, realtime voice, media generation, and framework native AI apps. TanStack AI is built from composable activities and provider adapters. Use one provider or switch between many. Import only chat, or add image, audio, video, speech, transcription, summarization, realtime, Code Mode, devtools, and framework bindings as your app needs them. Read the docs Agent Skills Teach your coding agent TanStack AI before you write a line. The skills in skills/ are user level: install once, and in every…
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Frequently asked questions
Is LobeChat or ai more popular?
LobeChat has 83,716 GitHub stars and ai has 3,325. LobeChat has the larger community by that measure.
Are LobeChat and ai free?
Both are open source. LobeChat has no licence declared in this registry, and ai is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between LobeChat and ai?
LobeChat is written in TypeScript and ai 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, LobeChat or ai?
Choose LobeChat if you want the larger community (83,716 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose ai if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.