head to head · open source
OpenClaw vs botman
OpenClaw has 390,029 GitHub stars, 81,995 forks, 6,671 open issues and last shipped today. botman has 6,160 stars, 812 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. OpenClaw leads on adoption by 6,232% (390,029 vs 6,160 stars). OpenClaw is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; botman is written in PHP under MIT. OpenClaw has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, botman 13%. OpenClaw 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
| OpenClaw | botman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 390K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-04-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 82K | ⑂ 812 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenClaw if
- You weight community size — 390K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick botman if
- You want the botman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and botman fits your workflow better
About OpenClaw
OpenClaw is an open source, self hosted AI assistant in the AI & Machine Learning / AI Interaction & Interfaces category that runs on hardware the user controls and meets them inside the messaging channels they already use, for individuals who want a personal assistant on a laptop and teams that want a shared deployment.
read the full OpenClaw overview →
About botman
BotMan is a framework agnostic PHP library for building chat bots that run across multiple messaging platforms from a single codebase, aimed at PHP developers and Laravel teams who want cross platform bot logic without writing separate integration code for every service.
read the full botman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenClaw or botman more popular?
OpenClaw has 390,029 GitHub stars and botman has 6,160. OpenClaw has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenClaw and botman free?
Both are open source. OpenClaw has no licence declared in this registry, and botman is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between OpenClaw and botman?
OpenClaw is written in TypeScript and botman in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, OpenClaw or botman?
Choose OpenClaw if you want the larger community (390,029 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose botman if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.