head to head · open source
odysseus vs venom
odysseus has 87,371 GitHub stars, 907 forks, 1,233 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. venom has 6,581 stars, 1,331 forks, 62 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. odysseus leads on adoption by 1,228% (87,371 vs 6,581 stars). odysseus is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; venom is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. odysseus has attracted 1% as many forks as stars, venom 20%. 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 | venom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 87K | ★ 6.6K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 907 | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 venom if
- You want the venom feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and venom 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 venom
Venom is an Apache 2.0 TypeScript framework that drives WhatsApp Web through Puppeteer, giving JavaScript and TypeScript developers a programmatic API for chatbots, customer service flows and message automation.
read the full venom overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is odysseus or venom more popular?
odysseus has 87,371 GitHub stars and venom has 6,581. odysseus has the larger community by that measure.
Are odysseus and venom free?
Both are open source. odysseus is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and venom under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between odysseus and venom?
odysseus is written in Python and venom in TypeScript. 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 venom?
Choose odysseus if you want the larger community (87,371 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose venom if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.