head to head · open source
odysseus vs Sidekick
odysseus has 94,935 GitHub stars, 1,862 forks, 1,233 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Sidekick has 3,321 stars, 146 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. odysseus leads on adoption by 2,759% (94,935 vs 3,321 stars). odysseus is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; Sidekick is written in Swift under MIT. odysseus has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, Sidekick 4%. 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.
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Side by side
| odysseus | Sidekick | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 95K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 146 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick odysseus if
- You weight community size — 95K 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 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 odysseus
A self hosted AI workspace for chat, agents, research, documents, email, notes, calendar, and local model workflows. Quick Start · Setup Guide · Contributing · Roadmap Quick Start dev is the default branch and gets the newest changes first. Use main if you want the more curated branch. Open when the containers are healthy. The first admin password is printed in docker compose logs odysseus . Native installs, GPU notes, Windows/macOS instructions, HTTPS, and configuration live in the setup guide. Features Chat + Agents — local/API models, tools, MCP, files, shell, skills, and memory. Cookbook — hardware aware…
read the full odysseus 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 odysseus or Sidekick more popular?
odysseus has 94,935 GitHub stars and Sidekick has 3,321. odysseus has the larger community by that measure.
Are odysseus and Sidekick free?
Both are open source. odysseus is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Sidekick under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between odysseus and Sidekick?
odysseus 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, odysseus or Sidekick?
Choose odysseus if you want the larger community (94,935 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Sidekick if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.