head to head · open source
ponytail vs eko
ponytail has 141,465 GitHub stars, 7,581 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. eko has 4,961 stars, 443 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. ponytail leads on adoption by 2,752% (141,465 vs 4,961 stars). ponytail is written in JavaScript under MIT; eko is written in TypeScript under MIT. ponytail has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, eko 9%. ponytail was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai-agents), 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
| ponytail | eko | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 141K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-03-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.6K | ⑂ 443 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ponytail if
- You weight community size — 141K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick eko if
- You want the eko feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and eko fits your workflow better
About ponytail
Ponytail is an open source agent skill for JavaScript and LLM based coding tools that makes an AI agent write the minimum working code for a task, and it is built for developers and teams running agents such as Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor against real repositories.
read the full ponytail overview →
About eko
Eko (Eko Keeps Operating, pronounced like "echo") is a production ready, MIT licensed JavaScript and TypeScript framework for building reliable AI agents — from a single natural language command up to complex multi step workflows — behind one unified interface for both computer and browser environments, aimed at developers who want agentic automation inside the JavaScript ecosystem rather than a server only stack.
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Frequently asked questions
Is ponytail or eko more popular?
ponytail has 141,465 GitHub stars and eko has 4,961. ponytail has the larger community by that measure.
Are ponytail and eko free?
Both are open source. ponytail is licensed under MIT and eko under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ponytail and eko?
ponytail is written in JavaScript and eko 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, ponytail or eko?
Choose ponytail if you want the larger community (141,465 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose eko if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.