head to head · open source
LobeChat vs MaxKB
LobeChat has 82,547 GitHub stars, 15,891 forks, 922 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MaxKB has 22,824 stars, 3,156 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LobeChat leads on adoption by 262% (82,547 vs 22,824 stars). LobeChat is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; MaxKB is written in Python under GPL-3.0. LobeChat has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, MaxKB 14%. LobeChat 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 | MaxKB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 83K | ★ 23K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| 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 MaxKB if
- You want the MaxKB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and MaxKB 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 MaxKB
MaxKB is an open source Python platform for building enterprise grade agents in the AI and machine learning ecosystem. It combines a web interface, LangChain based retrieval augmented generation, workflow orchestration, and MCP tool use so organizations can connect large language models to their own documents, systems, and business processes. The project is positioned as a knowledge brain deployed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
read the full MaxKB overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LobeChat or MaxKB more popular?
LobeChat has 82,547 GitHub stars and MaxKB has 22,824. LobeChat has the larger community by that measure.
Are LobeChat and MaxKB free?
Both are open source. LobeChat has no licence declared in this registry, and MaxKB is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between LobeChat and MaxKB?
LobeChat is written in TypeScript and MaxKB in Python. 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 MaxKB?
Choose LobeChat if you want the larger community (82,547 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose MaxKB if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.