head to head · open source
ponytail vs Mika
ponytail has 184,431 GitHub stars, 10,173 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Mika has 6,588 stars, 1,413 forks, 114 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ponytail leads on adoption by 2,699% (184,431 vs 6,588 stars). ponytail is written in JavaScript under MIT; Mika is written in Kotlin under Apache-2.0. ponytail has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Mika 21%. Mika was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), 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 | Mika | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 184K | ★ 6.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 10K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ponytail if
- You weight community size — 184K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Mika if
- You want the Mika feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and Mika fits your workflow better
About ponytail
Ponytail He says nothing. He writes one line. It works. 54% less code (up to 94%) · 20% cheaper · 27% faster · 100% safe Measured on real Claude Code sessions editing a real open source repo (FastAPI + React), against the same agent with no skill. 54% is the mean across 12 feature tasks (Haiku 4.5, n=4); it reaches 94% where an agent over builds (a date picker) and is near zero where the code is already minimal. ponytail keeps every safety guard while a bare "write one liners" prompt drops one. (The earlier single shot benchmark reported 80 94% as a flat figure; against a fair agentic…
read the full ponytail overview →
About Mika
Mika An AI assistant on your phone: say what you need, and it works your apps and the web until it's done. It works on a hidden background screen, so you can keep using your phone. English · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Español "Send a message to File Transfer": Mika's chat on the left, each step on its background screen on the right (4× speed; chat list blurred) Get things done with one sentence "What did the group talk about today?" Scrolls through the chat in the background, then sums it up "A charger under $30, rated 4.5 stars or more" Adds the pick to the cart and stops before checkout "What has this creator…
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Frequently asked questions
Is ponytail or Mika more popular?
ponytail has 184,431 GitHub stars and Mika has 6,588. ponytail has the larger community by that measure.
Are ponytail and Mika free?
Both are open source. ponytail is licensed under MIT and Mika under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ponytail and Mika?
ponytail is written in JavaScript and Mika in Kotlin. 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 Mika?
Choose ponytail if you want the larger community (184,431 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Mika if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.