head to head · open source
AnythingLLM vs Onyx
AnythingLLM has 66,155 GitHub stars, 7,348 forks, 311 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Onyx has 32,149 stars, 4,478 forks, 451 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AnythingLLM leads on adoption by 106% (66,155 vs 32,149 stars). AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript under MIT; Onyx is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. AnythingLLM has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Onyx 14%. Onyx was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), 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
| AnythingLLM | Onyx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 32K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.3K | ⑂ 4.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick AnythingLLM if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Onyx if
- You want the Onyx feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Onyx fits your workflow better
About AnythingLLM
AnythingLLM is a local first AI application that enables users to chat with their documents using any large language model (LLM), local or cloud hosted. It runs as a self hosted service—by default in Docker—and provides a complete interface for document ingestion, agent orchestration, multi user access, and workflow automation without requiring external cloud dependencies. The project lives in the local AI and AI interaction ecosystem, targeting users who want full control over their data and model selection.
read the full AnythingLLM overview →
About Onyx
Onyx is an open source AI application layer that gives teams a self hostable chat interface with retrieval augmented generation over their own company data and more than 50 indexing connectors.
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Frequently asked questions
Is AnythingLLM or Onyx more popular?
AnythingLLM has 66,155 GitHub stars and Onyx has 32,149. AnythingLLM has the larger community by that measure.
Are AnythingLLM and Onyx free?
Both are open source. AnythingLLM is licensed under MIT, and Onyx has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between AnythingLLM and Onyx?
AnythingLLM is written in JavaScript and Onyx 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, AnythingLLM or Onyx?
Choose AnythingLLM if you want the larger community (66,155 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Onyx if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.