head to head · open source
LobeChat vs cindy
LobeChat has 82,547 GitHub stars, 15,891 forks, 922 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cindy has 2,749 stars, 399 forks, 1,390 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LobeChat leads on adoption by 2,903% (82,547 vs 2,749 stars). LobeChat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; cindy is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. LobeChat has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, cindy 15%. cindy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (agent), 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 | cindy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 399 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LobeChat if
- You weight community size — 83K 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 cindy if
- You want the cindy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and cindy fits your workflow better
About LobeChat
LobeHub is an open source platform for managing, building, and operating AI agent teams. It functions as a Chief Agent Operator (CAO), enabling users to organize, schedule, and monitor autonomous AI agents around the clock. The project lives in the AI interaction and interfaces ecosystem, integrating with major LLM providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, and Alibaba’s GLM series.
read the full LobeChat overview →
About cindy
Cindy is an open source AI agent that works out of the box: a TypeScript desktop and mobile client that runs locally on your own machine, uses your real files and logged in apps, and folds multiple agent harnesses, models and tools into one agent aimed at people who want finished work rather than another chat window.
read the full cindy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LobeChat or cindy more popular?
LobeChat has 82,547 GitHub stars and cindy has 2,749. LobeChat has the larger community by that measure.
Are LobeChat and cindy free?
Both are open source. LobeChat has no licence declared in this registry, and cindy is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between LobeChat and cindy?
LobeChat is written in TypeScript and cindy 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 cindy?
Choose LobeChat if you want the larger community (82,547 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose cindy if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.