head to head · open source
Cherry Studio vs Onyx
Cherry Studio has 53,202 GitHub stars, 5,164 forks, 1,514 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Onyx has 33,170 stars, 4,692 forks, 451 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cherry Studio leads on adoption by 60% (53,202 vs 33,170 stars). Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Onyx is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. Cherry Studio has attracted 10% 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
| Cherry Studio | Onyx | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 53K | ★ 33K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 4.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Cherry Studio if
- You weight community size — 53K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 Cherry Studio
English Official Site Documents Development Feedback [![][deepwiki shield]][deepwiki link] [![][twitter shield]][twitter link] [![][discord shield]][discord link] [![][telegram shield]][telegram link] [![][github release shield]][github release link] [![][github nightly shield]][github nightly link] [![][github contributors shield]][github contributors link] [![][license shield]][license link] [![][commercial shield]][commercial link] [![][sponsor shield]][sponsor link] 🍒 Cherry Studio Cherry Studio is a desktop client that supports multiple LLM providers, available on Windows, Mac and Linux. 👏 Join Telegram…
read the full Cherry Studio overview →
About Onyx
Onyx The Open Source AI Platform Onyx is the application layer for LLMs bringing a feature rich interface that can be easily hosted by anyone. Onyx enables LLMs through advanced capabilities like RAG, web search, code execution, file creation, deep research and more. Connect your applications with over 50+ indexing based connectors provided out of the box or via MCP. [!TIP] Deploy with a single command: ⭐ Features 🔍 Agentic RAG: Get best in class search and answer quality based on hybrid index + AI Agents for information retrieval Benchmark to release soon! 🔬 Deep Research: Get in depth reports with a multi…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Cherry Studio or Onyx more popular?
Cherry Studio has 53,202 GitHub stars and Onyx has 33,170. Cherry Studio has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cherry Studio and Onyx free?
Both are open source. Cherry Studio is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Onyx has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Cherry Studio and Onyx?
Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript 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, Cherry Studio or Onyx?
Choose Cherry Studio if you want the larger community (53,202 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Onyx if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.