head to head · open source
rowboat vs sidequest
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars, 1,817 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sidequest has 1,021 stars, 31 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. rowboat leads on adoption by 1,676% (18,131 vs 1,021 stars). rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; sidequest is written in TypeScript under LGPL-3.0. rowboat has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, sidequest 3%. rowboat 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| rowboat | sidequest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-10-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 31 |
| 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 sidequest if
- You want the sidequest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sidequest 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 sidequest
Sidequest Sidequest is a Redis free background job processor for Node.js . It persists jobs in the database you already run (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, or MongoDB), so you get durable, distributed background processing without standing up Redis. It is a production grade BullMQ and pg boss alternative, with a built in web dashboard. At a glance Runtime: Node.js ( = 22.6.0). Does not run on Bun yet. Storage: PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, or MongoDB. Jobs are durable and persisted in your database , not in memory. SQLite is recommended for local development and tests. Distribution: runs across multiple nodes against…
read the full sidequest overview →
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 sidequest more popular?
rowboat has 18,131 GitHub stars and sidequest has 1,021. rowboat has the larger community by that measure.
Are rowboat and sidequest free?
Both are open source. rowboat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sidequest under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rowboat and sidequest?
rowboat is written in TypeScript and sidequest 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 sidequest?
Choose rowboat if you want the larger community (18,131 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sidequest if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.