head to head · open source
odysseus vs Swirl Search
odysseus has 94,935 GitHub stars, 1,862 forks, 1,233 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Swirl Search has 3,051 stars, 292 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. odysseus leads on adoption by 3,012% (94,935 vs 3,051 stars). odysseus is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; Swirl Search is written in Python under Apache-2.0. odysseus has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, Swirl Search 10%. 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 | Swirl Search | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 95K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 292 |
| 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 Swirl Search if
- You want the Swirl Search feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Swirl Search 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 Swirl Search
SWIRL Community Federated AI search and RAG across your stack, without moving your data Ask a question. SWIRL searches your apps live, ranks the results, and returns an answer with sources you can click through to. Data stays where it lives. No vector database, no ETL, no second copy to govern. Open source, Apache 2.0, running on your machine in about two minutes. ⚡ Quick Start · 🧱 What you get · 🆚 Community vs Enterprise · 🔌 Connectors · 🤝 Contribute This repository is SWIRL Community , Apache 2.0 and free to self host. There is also SWIRL Enterprise , which adds a three pass reranker, canonical answers, an…
read the full Swirl Search overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is odysseus or Swirl Search more popular?
odysseus has 94,935 GitHub stars and Swirl Search has 3,051. odysseus has the larger community by that measure.
Are odysseus and Swirl Search free?
Both are open source. odysseus is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Swirl Search under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between odysseus and Swirl Search?
odysseus is written in Python and Swirl Search 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 Swirl Search?
Choose odysseus if you want the larger community (94,935 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Swirl Search if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.