head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs chatbox
Open WebUI has 157,498 GitHub stars, 22,901 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chatbox has 42,229 stars, 4,300 forks, 1,290 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 273% (157,498 vs 42,229 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; chatbox is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, chatbox 10%. Open WebUI was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ollama, openai), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Open WebUI | chatbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 157K | ★ 42K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 4.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Open WebUI if
- You weight community size — 157K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chatbox if
- You want the chatbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and chatbox fits your workflow better
About Open WebUI
Open WebUI 👋 Open WebUI is a home for AI , a self hosted AI platform that's extensible , feature rich , user friendly, and built to run entirely offline . With support for Ollama and OpenAI compatible APIs , it gives you a powerful, provider agnostic interface for both local and cloud based models. Passionate about open source AI? Join our team → [!TIP] Looking for an Enterprise Plan? – Speak with Our Sales Team Today! For more information, be sure to check out our Open WebUI Documentation. Key Features of Open WebUI ⭐ 🚀 Effortless Setup : Install seamlessly via pip, uv, Docker, or Kubernetes (kubectl…
read the full Open WebUI overview →
About chatbox
English 简体中文 Chatbox (Community Edition) Your Ultimate AI Copilot on the Desktop. Chatbox is a desktop client for ChatGPT, Claude and other LLMs, available on Windows, Mac, Linux This is the repository for the Chatbox Community Edition, open sourced under the GPLv3 license. Chatbox is going open source Again! We regularly sync code from the pro repo to this repo, and vice versa. Download Desktop Windows MacOS Linux Setup.exe Intel Apple Silicon AppImage iOS/Android .APK For more information: chatboxai.app Quick Start For End Users 1. Download the appropriate installer for your platform from the releases page 2…
read the full chatbox overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Interaction & Interfaces projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Interaction & Interfaces field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or chatbox more popular?
Open WebUI has 157,498 GitHub stars and chatbox has 42,229. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and chatbox free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and chatbox is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and chatbox?
Open WebUI is written in Python and chatbox 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, Open WebUI or chatbox?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (157,498 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose chatbox if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.