head to head · open source
nanobot vs catai
nanobot has 49,806 GitHub stars, 8,711 forks, 775 open issues and last shipped today. catai has 498 stars, 40 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. nanobot leads on adoption by 9,901% (49,806 vs 498 stars). nanobot is written in Python under MIT; catai is written in TypeScript under MIT. nanobot has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, catai 8%. nanobot was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (chatbot, local-llm), 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
| nanobot | catai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 498 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2025-11-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 40 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nanobot if
- You weight community size — 50K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick catai if
- You want the catai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and catai fits your workflow better
About nanobot
English 简体中文 繁體中文 Español Français Bahasa Indonesia 日本語 한국어 Русский Tiếng Việt Discord · X · WeChat / Feishu nanobot 🐈 nanobot is an ultra lightweight, open source, self hosted personal AI agent framework written in Python. It runs in a WebUI, terminal, or chat apps and combines tools, long term memory, MCP integrations, model routing, multi agent delegation, scheduled automation, and an OpenAI compatible API in a small, readable core. Start Here What can nanobot do? nanobot is a self hosted personal AI agent runtime. It can: run in a browser WebUI or terminal connect to Telegram, Discord, Slack, WeChat, Email…
read the full nanobot overview →
About catai
Catai 🚀 Exciting Updates Coming Soon! New UI , Function Calling , and more amazing features are on the way! Stay tuned for updates. Run GGUF models on your computer with a chat ui. Your own AI assistant runs locally on your computer. Inspired by Node Llama Cpp, Llama.cpp Installation & Use Make sure you have Node.js ( download current ) installed. Features Auto detect programming language 🧑💻 Click on user icon to show original message 💬 Real time text streaming ⏱️ Fast model downloads 🚀 CLI Install command Cross platform You can use it on Windows, Linux and Mac. This package uses node llama cpp which…
read the full catai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nanobot or catai more popular?
nanobot has 49,806 GitHub stars and catai has 498. nanobot has the larger community by that measure.
Are nanobot and catai free?
Both are open source. nanobot is licensed under MIT and catai under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nanobot and catai?
nanobot is written in Python and catai 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, nanobot or catai?
Choose nanobot if you want the larger community (49,806 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose catai if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.