head to head · open source
Jan vs ophel
Jan has 45,023 GitHub stars, 3,104 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ophel has 986 stars, 60 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. Jan leads on adoption by 4,466% (45,023 vs 986 stars). Jan is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; ophel is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. Jan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, ophel 6%. Jan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (chatgpt), 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
| Jan | ophel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 986 |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-21 | 2026-10-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 60 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Jan if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ophel if
- You want the ophel 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 ophel fits your workflow better
About Jan
Jan Open source ChatGPT replacement English · 中文 · 日本語 Getting Started Community Changelog Bug reports Jan is bringing the best of open source AI in an easy to use product. Download and run LLMs with full control and privacy . Installation The easiest way to get started is by downloading one of the following versions for your respective operating system: Platform Download Windows jan.exe macOS jan.dmg Linux (deb) jan.deb Linux (AppImage) jan.AppImage Linux (Arm64) How to Download from jan.ai or GitHub Releases. Features Local AI Models : Download and run LLMs (Llama, Gemma, Qwen, GPT oss etc.) from HuggingFace…
About ophel
Ophel Atlas 🚀 Turn AI chats into documents you can read, navigate, and reuse Language: English 简体中文 ✨ Turn Conversations into Knowledge, Not Just History ✨ No more getting lost in endless scroll. Clarify context with real time Outlines, Build your system with Chat Folders, Refine experience with the Prompt Library, Let sparkling thoughts flow freely in order. 👇 Demo: From "Infinite Scroll" to "Navigable AI Documents" Making AI chat a truly organizeable workflow for the first time No matter which of these platforms you use, Ophel lets you organize conversations into reusable workflows with a consistent, unified…
read the full ophel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jan or ophel more popular?
Jan has 45,023 GitHub stars and ophel has 986. Jan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jan and ophel free?
Both are open source. Jan has no licence declared in this registry, and ophel is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jan and ophel?
Jan is written in Rust and ophel 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, Jan or ophel?
Choose Jan if you want the larger community (45,023 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose ophel if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.