head to head · open source
nanobot vs errbot
nanobot has 48,372 GitHub stars, 8,548 forks, 775 open issues and last shipped today. errbot has 3,306 stars, 624 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. nanobot leads on adoption by 1,363% (48,372 vs 3,306 stars). nanobot is written in Python under MIT; errbot is written in Python under GPL-3.0. nanobot has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, errbot 19%. 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, chatops), 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 | errbot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 48K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-08-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.5K | ⑂ 624 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nanobot if
- You weight community size — 48K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick errbot if
- You want the errbot 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 errbot fits your workflow better
About nanobot
nanobot is an ultra lightweight, open source, self hosted personal AI agent framework written in Python, aimed at individual developers and small teams who want to run their own agent through a browser WebUI, a terminal, or chat apps instead of renting a hosted assistant.
read the full nanobot overview →
About errbot
Errbot is a chatbot daemon written in Python and released under the GPL 3.0 licence that connects to a chat service and lets people start scripts, plugins and operational tasks directly from the conversation, aimed at developers and operations teams who want ChatOps inside the chat tools they already use.
read the full errbot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nanobot or errbot more popular?
nanobot has 48,372 GitHub stars and errbot has 3,306. nanobot has the larger community by that measure.
Are nanobot and errbot free?
Both are open source. nanobot is licensed under MIT and errbot under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nanobot and errbot?
nanobot is written in Python and errbot 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, nanobot or errbot?
Choose nanobot if you want the larger community (48,372 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose errbot if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.