head to head · open source
OpenViking vs liam
OpenViking has 39,947 GitHub stars, 3,177 forks, 999 open issues and last shipped today. liam has 5,140 stars, 241 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenViking leads on adoption by 677% (39,947 vs 5,140 stars). OpenViking is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; liam is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. OpenViking has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, liam 5%. OpenViking 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
| OpenViking | liam | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 241 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenViking if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick liam if
- You want the liam feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and liam fits your workflow better
About OpenViking
OpenViking is an open source context database for AI agents that keeps everything an agent knows — knowledge, memory, and skills — in one virtual filesystem, built for developers and teams who need to inspect and edit what their agent actually stored instead of trusting an opaque embedding index.
read the full OpenViking overview →
About liam
Liam is an open source TypeScript tool that automatically generates beautiful, interactive ER diagrams from an existing database schema, built for developers and teams who need to read, document, and share the structure of a database without drawing diagrams by hand.
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenViking or liam more popular?
OpenViking has 39,947 GitHub stars and liam has 5,140. OpenViking has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenViking and liam free?
Both are open source. OpenViking is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and liam under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenViking and liam?
OpenViking is written in Python and liam 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, OpenViking or liam?
Choose OpenViking if you want the larger community (39,947 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose liam if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.