head to head · open source
LobeChat vs catai
LobeChat has 83,716 GitHub stars, 16,033 forks, 922 open issues and last shipped yesterday. catai has 498 stars, 40 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. LobeChat leads on adoption by 16,710% (83,716 vs 498 stars). LobeChat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; catai is written in TypeScript under MIT. LobeChat has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, catai 8%. 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, chatgpt), 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 | catai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 84K | ★ 498 |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-11-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 40 |
| 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 catai if
- You want the catai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and catai 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 catai
Catai 🚀 Exciting Updates Coming Soon! New UI , Function Calling , and more amazing features are on the way! Stay tuned for updates. Run GGUF models on your computer with a chat ui. Your own AI assistant runs locally on your computer. Inspired by Node Llama Cpp, Llama.cpp Installation & Use Make sure you have Node.js ( download current ) installed. Features Auto detect programming language 🧑💻 Click on user icon to show original message 💬 Real time text streaming ⏱️ Fast model downloads 🚀 CLI Install command Cross platform You can use it on Windows, Linux and Mac. This package uses node llama cpp which…
read the full catai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LobeChat or catai more popular?
LobeChat has 83,716 GitHub stars and catai has 498. LobeChat has the larger community by that measure.
Are LobeChat and catai free?
Both are open source. LobeChat has no licence declared in this registry, and catai is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between LobeChat and catai?
LobeChat is written in TypeScript and catai 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 catai?
Choose LobeChat if you want the larger community (83,716 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose catai if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.