head to head · open source
Jan vs QwenPaw
Jan has 44,566 GitHub stars, 3,040 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped yesterday. QwenPaw has 35,130 stars, 3,119 forks, 990 open issues and last shipped today. Jan leads on adoption by 27% (44,566 vs 35,130 stars). Jan is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; QwenPaw is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Jan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, QwenPaw 9%. QwenPaw 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
| Jan | QwenPaw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 35K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| 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 TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick QwenPaw if
- You want the QwenPaw 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 QwenPaw fits your workflow better
About Jan
Jan is an open source desktop application that serves as a ChatGPT replacement, enabling users to run large language models (LLMs) locally on their machines or connect to cloud based providers like OpenAI and Anthropic. It is built with Tauri, TypeScript, and integrates llama.cpp for efficient local inference, targeting privacy conscious users who want full control over their AI workflows without sending data to third parties.
About QwenPaw
QwenPaw is a personal AI assistant harness under the Apache 2.0 licence, aimed at people who want an LLM agent running on their own machine or in their own cloud account and reachable from the chat apps they already use.
read the full QwenPaw overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jan or QwenPaw more popular?
Jan has 44,566 GitHub stars and QwenPaw has 35,130. Jan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jan and QwenPaw free?
Both are open source. Jan has no licence declared in this registry, and QwenPaw is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jan and QwenPaw?
Jan is written in TypeScript and QwenPaw 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 QwenPaw?
Choose Jan if you want the larger community (44,566 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose QwenPaw if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.