head to head · open source
LobeChat vs chatbox
LobeChat has 83,716 GitHub stars, 16,033 forks, 922 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chatbox has 42,236 stars, 4,303 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. LobeChat leads on adoption by 98% (83,716 vs 42,236 stars). LobeChat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. LobeChat has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, chatbox 10%. LobeChat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (chatgpt, claude, deepseek, 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 | chatbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 84K | ★ 42K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 4.3K |
| 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 chatbox if
- You want the chatbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and chatbox 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 chatbox
English 简体中文 Chatbox (Community Edition) Your Ultimate AI Copilot on the Desktop. Chatbox is a desktop client for ChatGPT, Claude and other LLMs, available on Windows, Mac, Linux This is the repository for the Chatbox Community Edition, open sourced under the GPLv3 license. Chatbox is going open source Again! We regularly sync code from the pro repo to this repo, and vice versa. Download Desktop Windows MacOS Linux Setup.exe Intel Apple Silicon AppImage iOS/Android .APK For more information: chatboxai.app Quick Start For End Users 1. Download the appropriate installer for your platform from the releases page 2…
read the full chatbox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LobeChat or chatbox more popular?
LobeChat has 83,716 GitHub stars and chatbox has 42,236. LobeChat has the larger community by that measure.
Are LobeChat and chatbox free?
Both are open source. LobeChat has no licence declared in this registry, and chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between LobeChat and chatbox?
LobeChat is written in TypeScript and chatbox 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 chatbox?
Choose LobeChat if you want the larger community (83,716 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose chatbox if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.