head to head · open source
odysseus vs MaxKB
odysseus has 87,407 GitHub stars, 921 forks, 1,233 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. MaxKB has 22,843 stars, 3,156 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped today. odysseus leads on adoption by 283% (87,407 vs 22,843 stars). odysseus is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; MaxKB is written in Python under GPL-3.0. odysseus has attracted 1% as many forks as stars, MaxKB 14%. MaxKB 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
| odysseus | MaxKB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 87K | ★ 23K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 921 | ⑂ 3.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick odysseus if
- You weight community size — 87K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 odysseus
Odysseus is a self hosted AI workspace written in Python and released under the AGPL 3.0 or later licence, built for people who want chat, agents, research, documents, email, notes, tasks, and calendar in one deployment on infrastructure they control.
read the full odysseus 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 odysseus or MaxKB more popular?
odysseus has 87,407 GitHub stars and MaxKB has 22,843. odysseus has the larger community by that measure.
Are odysseus and MaxKB free?
Both are open source. odysseus is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MaxKB under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between odysseus and MaxKB?
odysseus is written in Python 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, odysseus or MaxKB?
Choose odysseus if you want the larger community (87,407 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose MaxKB if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.