head to head · open source
rowboat vs hcom
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars, 1,817 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hcom has 626 stars, 104 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. rowboat leads on adoption by 2,796% (18,131 vs 626 stars). rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; hcom is written in Rust under MIT. rowboat has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, hcom 17%. rowboat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| rowboat | hcom | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 626 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 104 |
| 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 hcom if
- You want the hcom feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and hcom fits your workflow better
About rowboat
Rowboat A desktop AI coworker with a memory of your work and built in surfaces to act on it. 简体中文 · 日本語 · 한국어 · Español · Français · Português Rowboat indexes your work into a living knowledge graph and uses that to get work done on your machine. It includes work surfaces for collaborating with AI: email client, notes, browser, code mode, meeting note taker, and workspaces for different projects. Download latest for Mac/Windows/Linux: Download Demo apps to code · Demo knowledge graph ⭐ If you find Rowboat useful, please star the repo. It helps more people find it. Overview Brain Rowboat indexes email, meetings…
read the full rowboat overview →
About hcom
hcom Hook your coding agents together hcom is a CLI that coding agents use to message, watch, and spawn each other across terminals. Works with Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Kilo Code, Pi, Oh My Pi, Antigravity, Cursor, Kimi and Copilot in any combination, without changing how you use them. Use it to coordinate pipelines, run different AI CLIs as each other's subagents, or just instead of copy paste. Single Rust binary, no background services. Start an agent with hcom in front, then prompt normally. Install Other install options Quickstart Terminal 1: Terminal 2: Prompt: ask the other agent their favorite cake…
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Orchestration & Scheduling projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Orchestration & Scheduling field.
Frequently asked questions
Is rowboat or hcom more popular?
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars and hcom has 626. rowboat has the larger community by that measure.
Are rowboat and hcom free?
Both are open source. rowboat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hcom under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rowboat and hcom?
rowboat is written in TypeScript and hcom in Rust. 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 hcom?
Choose rowboat if you want the larger community (18,131 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hcom if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.