head to head · open source
rowboat vs hof
rowboat has 17,914 GitHub stars, 1,784 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. hof has 613 stars, 48 forks, 74 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. rowboat leads on adoption by 2,822% (17,914 vs 613 stars). rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; hof is written in Go under Apache-2.0. rowboat has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, hof 8%. rowboat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (agents), 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 | hof | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 613 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-05-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 48 |
| 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 hof if
- You want the hof feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and hof 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 hof
hof is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Go based command line framework and TUI that unifies CUE schemas, data models, deterministic and agentic code generation, and a DAG task engine into a single developer experience for engineers who want one declarative source of truth across their toolchain.
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Frequently asked questions
Is rowboat or hof more popular?
rowboat has 17,914 GitHub stars and hof has 613. rowboat has the larger community by that measure.
Are rowboat and hof free?
Both are open source. rowboat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hof under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rowboat and hof?
rowboat is written in TypeScript and hof in Go. 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 hof?
Choose rowboat if you want the larger community (17,914 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hof if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.