head to head · open source
rowboat vs swarmclaw
rowboat has 17,914 GitHub stars, 1,784 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. swarmclaw has 677 stars, 139 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. rowboat leads on adoption by 2,546% (17,914 vs 677 stars). rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; swarmclaw is written in TypeScript under MIT. rowboat has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, swarmclaw 21%. rowboat was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (agents, ai, ai-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 | swarmclaw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 677 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-06-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 139 |
| 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 swarmclaw if
- You want the swarmclaw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and swarmclaw 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 swarmclaw
SwarmClaw is an open source, self hosted AI agent runtime and multi agent framework for autonomous agent swarms, written in TypeScript under the MIT licence for developers and operators who want to run AI agents and agent orchestration on their own infrastructure.
read the full swarmclaw overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rowboat or swarmclaw more popular?
rowboat has 17,914 GitHub stars and swarmclaw has 677. rowboat has the larger community by that measure.
Are rowboat and swarmclaw free?
Both are open source. rowboat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and swarmclaw under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rowboat and swarmclaw?
rowboat is written in TypeScript and swarmclaw 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 swarmclaw?
Choose rowboat if you want the larger community (17,914 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose swarmclaw if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.