head to head · open source
rowboat vs Tracely-ai
rowboat has 17,914 GitHub stars, 1,784 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Tracely-ai has 1,353 stars, 153 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. rowboat leads on adoption by 1,224% (17,914 vs 1,353 stars). rowboat is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; Tracely-ai is written in Python under MIT. rowboat has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Tracely-ai 11%. rowboat 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, llm), 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 | Tracely-ai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 153 |
| 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 Tracely-ai if
- You want the Tracely-ai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Tracely-ai 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 Tracely-ai
Tracely is a Python, MIT licensed project for AI agent operations and continuous integration. It lives in the AI agent, LLM observability, CI/CD, and evaluation ecosystem. The project treats production traces as the source of regression tests: when an agent run fails, Tracely can detect the failure, cluster related failures, freeze the bad run into a hermetic replayable case, and block a pull request that would reintroduce the same problem.
read the full Tracely-ai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rowboat or Tracely-ai more popular?
rowboat has 17,914 GitHub stars and Tracely-ai has 1,353. rowboat has the larger community by that measure.
Are rowboat and Tracely-ai free?
Both are open source. rowboat is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Tracely-ai under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rowboat and Tracely-ai?
rowboat is written in TypeScript and Tracely-ai in Python. 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 Tracely-ai?
Choose rowboat if you want the larger community (17,914 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Tracely-ai if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.