head to head · open source
rowboat vs happier
rowboat has 17,953 GitHub stars, 1,789 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. happier has 1,706 stars, 152 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped today. rowboat leads on adoption by 952% (17,953 vs 1,706 stars). rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; happier is written in TypeScript under MIT. rowboat has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, happier 9%. happier was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, claude-code), 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
| rowboat | happier | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-09-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 152 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rowboat if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick happier if
- You want the happier feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and happier fits your workflow better
About rowboat
Rowboat is an open source desktop AI coworker, licensed Apache 2.0 and written in TypeScript, that maintains a memory of your work as a local Markdown knowledge graph and provides built in surfaces — email, notes, browser, code mode, meeting notes — for acting on that memory.
read the full rowboat overview →
About happier
Happier is an open source, MIT licensed control room for coding agents: it runs Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Pi and others in parallel on your own machines, and lets you approve, steer, review and commit from web, desktop and mobile clients that are fully end to end encrypted.
read the full happier overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rowboat or happier more popular?
rowboat has 17,953 GitHub stars and happier has 1,706. rowboat has the larger community by that measure.
Are rowboat and happier free?
Both are open source. rowboat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and happier under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rowboat and happier?
rowboat is written in TypeScript and happier 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, rowboat or happier?
Choose rowboat if you want the larger community (17,953 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose happier if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.