head to head · open source
ponytail vs neo
ponytail has 141,465 GitHub stars, 7,581 forks, 270 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. neo has 3,277 stars, 232 forks, 140 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ponytail leads on adoption by 4,217% (141,465 vs 3,277 stars). ponytail is written in JavaScript under MIT; neo is written in JavaScript under MIT. ponytail has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, neo 7%. neo 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.
← all 13541 open source comparisons
Side by side
| ponytail | neo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 141K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.6K | ⑂ 232 |
| 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 neo if
- You want the neo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and neo 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 neo
Neo.mjs is an MIT licensed, open source JavaScript application engine whose multi threaded runtime is designed to be inhabited by a cross model AI engineering swarm, built for teams that want AI agents working inside a live application rather than chatting beside it.
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Development Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Development Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is ponytail or neo more popular?
ponytail has 141,465 GitHub stars and neo has 3,277. ponytail has the larger community by that measure.
Are ponytail and neo free?
Both are open source. ponytail is licensed under MIT and neo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ponytail and neo?
ponytail is written in JavaScript and neo in JavaScript. 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 neo?
Choose ponytail if you want the larger community (141,465 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose neo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.