head to head · open source
LobeChat vs claude-forge
LobeChat has 82,576 GitHub stars, 15,895 forks, 922 open issues and last shipped today. claude-forge has 837 stars, 178 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. LobeChat leads on adoption by 9,766% (82,576 vs 837 stars). LobeChat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; claude-forge is written in Shell under MIT. LobeChat has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, claude-forge 21%. LobeChat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | claude-forge | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 837 |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 178 |
| 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 claude-forge if
- You want the claude-forge feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and claude-forge 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 claude-forge
⚡ New here? Walk through setup in 60 seconds → English · 한국어 · 中文 · setup guide in 13 languages oh my zsh for Claude Code — one install, full professional kit What is it? • Why bother? • Install • What's inside • How to use • Architecture • FAQ • 한국어 v4.3.0 (September 2026, latest) — session time report now reads Codex too. Same hook, same report; it detects whether a transcript is a Claude Code transcript or a Codex rollout log and counts either. Wiring for Codex is two entries you add to /.codex/hooks.json (how). v4.2.0 (September 2026) — Adds session time report (22nd hook): …
read the full claude-forge overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LobeChat or claude-forge more popular?
LobeChat has 82,576 GitHub stars and claude-forge has 837. LobeChat has the larger community by that measure.
Are LobeChat and claude-forge free?
Both are open source. LobeChat has no licence declared in this registry, and claude-forge is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between LobeChat and claude-forge?
LobeChat is written in TypeScript and claude-forge in Shell. 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 claude-forge?
Choose LobeChat if you want the larger community (82,576 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose claude-forge if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.