head to head · open source
OpenClaw vs waku-agent
OpenClaw has 393,747 GitHub stars, 82,755 forks, 6,671 open issues and last shipped yesterday. waku-agent has 2,126 stars, 418 forks, 24 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. OpenClaw leads on adoption by 18,421% (393,747 vs 2,126 stars). OpenClaw is written in TypeScript under MIT; waku-agent is written in Python under MIT. OpenClaw has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, waku-agent 20%. 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 | waku-agent | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 394K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 83K | ⑂ 418 |
| 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 waku-agent if
- You want the waku-agent feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and waku-agent 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 waku-agent
waku agent Your own AI assistant. On your laptop. In code you can read in an afternoon. Meet Waku — a local first personal assistant that shows the four pillars behind every serious agent: Harness · Loop · Memory · Eval/LLM Ops . No frameworks hiding the good parts. Built by seanchen.io. Local first. Your memory is one SQLite file. Open it. Read it. It's yours. Memory is the hero. Semantic + episodic + procedural — with a gate that decides whether to remember, and a pass that decides what to keep. The loop is 95 lines of plain Python. Step through it. Watch it think. A local dashboard lights up every message as…
read the full waku-agent overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenClaw or waku-agent more popular?
OpenClaw has 393,747 GitHub stars and waku-agent has 2,126. OpenClaw has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenClaw and waku-agent free?
Both are open source. OpenClaw is licensed under MIT and waku-agent under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenClaw and waku-agent?
OpenClaw is written in TypeScript and waku-agent 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, OpenClaw or waku-agent?
Choose OpenClaw if you want the larger community (393,747 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose waku-agent if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.