head to head · open source
OpenClaw vs catai
OpenClaw has 393,664 GitHub stars, 82,735 forks, 6,671 open issues and last shipped yesterday. catai has 498 stars, 39 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 12 months ago. OpenClaw leads on adoption by 78,949% (393,664 vs 498 stars). OpenClaw is written in TypeScript under MIT; catai is written in TypeScript under MIT. OpenClaw has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, catai 8%. OpenClaw was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), 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
| OpenClaw | catai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 394K | ★ 498 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-11-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 83K | ⑂ 39 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenClaw if
- You weight community size — 394K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick catai if
- You want the catai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and catai fits your workflow better
About OpenClaw
OpenClaw 🦞 — Your assistant, on your devices, in your chats OpenClaw is an open source AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the channels you already use: Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, and 20+ more, plus native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux. One Gateway runs it as a personal assistant on a laptop or as a shared team deployment; configuration is the only difference. Yours, with no catch. State, memory, and credentials live on your hardware. Models and agent harnesses (Claude, Codex, local models) are plugins you can swap without changing anything…
read the full OpenClaw overview →
About catai
Catai 🚀 Exciting Updates Coming Soon! New UI , Function Calling , and more amazing features are on the way! Stay tuned for updates. Run GGUF models on your computer with a chat ui. Your own AI assistant runs locally on your computer. Inspired by Node Llama Cpp, Llama.cpp Installation & Use Make sure you have Node.js ( download current ) installed. Features Auto detect programming language 🧑💻 Click on user icon to show original message 💬 Real time text streaming ⏱️ Fast model downloads 🚀 CLI Install command Cross platform You can use it on Windows, Linux and Mac. This package uses node llama cpp which…
read the full catai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenClaw or catai more popular?
OpenClaw has 393,664 GitHub stars and catai has 498. OpenClaw has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenClaw and catai free?
Both are open source. OpenClaw is licensed under MIT and catai under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenClaw and catai?
OpenClaw is written in TypeScript and catai 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, OpenClaw or catai?
Choose OpenClaw if you want the larger community (393,664 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose catai if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.