head to head · open source
open-claude-cowork vs n8n-helm-chart
open-claude-cowork has 4,359 GitHub stars, 735 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. n8n-helm-chart has 704 stars, 248 forks, 64 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. open-claude-cowork leads on adoption by 519% (4,359 vs 704 stars). open-claude-cowork is written in JavaScript under MIT; n8n-helm-chart is written in Go Template under Apache-2.0. open-claude-cowork has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, n8n-helm-chart 35%. n8n-helm-chart was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (workflow-automation), 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
| open-claude-cowork | n8n-helm-chart | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.4K | ★ 704 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go Template |
| Last push | 2026-05-23 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 735 | ⑂ 248 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick open-claude-cowork if
- You weight community size — 4.4K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick n8n-helm-chart if
- You want the n8n-helm-chart feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go Template
- You evaluated both and n8n-helm-chart fits your workflow better
About open-claude-cowork
Open Claude Cowork is an open source JavaScript desktop chat application in the Electron, Node.js, and Anthropic Claude ecosystem. It uses the Claude Agent SDK, Composio Tool Router, and MCP, and includes Secure Clawdbot for messaging platforms.
read the full open-claude-cowork overview →
About n8n-helm-chart
The n8n Helm chart is an Apache 2.0 Kubernetes Helm chart that packages n8n, the extendable workflow automation tool, for teams that self host n8n on Kubernetes.
read the full n8n-helm-chart overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is open-claude-cowork or n8n-helm-chart more popular?
open-claude-cowork has 4,359 GitHub stars and n8n-helm-chart has 704. open-claude-cowork has the larger community by that measure.
Are open-claude-cowork and n8n-helm-chart free?
Both are open source. open-claude-cowork is licensed under MIT and n8n-helm-chart under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between open-claude-cowork and n8n-helm-chart?
open-claude-cowork is written in JavaScript and n8n-helm-chart in Go Template. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, open-claude-cowork or n8n-helm-chart?
Choose open-claude-cowork if you want the larger community (4,359 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose n8n-helm-chart if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.