head to head · open source
nanobot vs Sidekick
nanobot has 49,806 GitHub stars, 8,711 forks, 775 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sidekick has 3,322 stars, 146 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. nanobot leads on adoption by 1,399% (49,806 vs 3,322 stars). nanobot is written in Python under MIT; Sidekick is written in Swift under MIT. nanobot has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, Sidekick 4%. nanobot was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, chatbot), 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 | Sidekick | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-09-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 146 |
| 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 Sidekick if
- You want the Sidekick feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and Sidekick 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 Sidekick
Sidekick Chat with a local LLM that can respond with information from your files, folders and websites on your Mac without installing any other software. All conversations happen offline, and your data stays secure. Sidekick is a local first application –– with a built in inference engine for local models, while accommodating OpenAI compatible APIs for additional model options. Sidekick supports modern GGUF local models such as Qwen3.5 out of the box through its built in llama.cpp backend. Example Use Let’s say you're collecting evidence for a History paper about interactions between Aztecs and Spanish troops…
read the full Sidekick overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nanobot or Sidekick more popular?
nanobot has 49,806 GitHub stars and Sidekick has 3,322. nanobot has the larger community by that measure.
Are nanobot and Sidekick free?
Both are open source. nanobot is licensed under MIT and Sidekick under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nanobot and Sidekick?
nanobot is written in Python and Sidekick in Swift. 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 Sidekick?
Choose nanobot if you want the larger community (49,806 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Sidekick if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.