head to head · open source
odysseus vs magentic
odysseus has 87,357 GitHub stars, 903 forks, 1,233 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. magentic has 2,425 stars, 127 forks, 50 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. odysseus leads on adoption by 3,502% (87,357 vs 2,425 stars). odysseus is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; magentic is written in Python under MIT. odysseus has attracted 1% as many forks as stars, magentic 5%. odysseus 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.
← all 13541 open source comparisons
Side by side
| odysseus | magentic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 87K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-03-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 903 | ⑂ 127 |
| 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 magentic if
- You want the magentic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and magentic 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 magentic
magentic is an MIT licensed Python library that turns Large Language Model prompts into typed Python functions through the @prompt and @chatprompt decorators, aimed at Python developers who need structured, agentic LLM behavior inside ordinary application code.
read the full magentic overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Interaction & Interfaces projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Interaction & Interfaces field.
Frequently asked questions
Is odysseus or magentic more popular?
odysseus has 87,357 GitHub stars and magentic has 2,425. odysseus has the larger community by that measure.
Are odysseus and magentic free?
Both are open source. odysseus is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and magentic under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between odysseus and magentic?
odysseus is written in Python and magentic 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 magentic?
Choose odysseus if you want the larger community (87,357 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose magentic if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.