head to head · open source
rtk vs Tabby
rtk has 85,327 GitHub stars, 5,462 forks, 1,642 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tabby has 33,921 stars, 1,793 forks, 335 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. rtk leads on adoption by 152% (85,327 vs 33,921 stars). rtk is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Tabby is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. rtk has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Tabby 5%. rtk was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (developer-tools), 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
| rtk | Tabby | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 85K | ★ 34K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-06-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.5K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rtk if
- You weight community size — 85K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Tabby if
- You want the Tabby feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Tabby fits your workflow better
About rtk
High performance CLI proxy that cuts up to 90% of the bash output your agent reads Website • Install • Troubleshooting • Architecture • Discord English • Francais • 中文 • 日本語 • 한국어 • Espanol • Português rtk filters and compresses command outputs before they reach your LLM context. Single Rust binary, 100+ supported commands, Full explanation: How RTK Savings Work Installation Homebrew (recommended) winget (Windows) Easiest way to install on Windows — one command, no PATH setup needed: Quick Install (Linux/macOS) Installs to /.local/bin . Add to PATH if needed…
About Tabby
🐾 Tabby 📚 Docs • 💬 Slack • 🗺️ Roadmap English 简体中文 日本語 Tabby is a self hosted AI coding assistant, offering an open source and on premises alternative to GitHub Copilot. It boasts several key features: Self contained, with no need for a DBMS or cloud service. OpenAPI interface, easy to integrate with existing infrastructure (e.g Cloud IDE). Supports consumer grade GPUs. 🔥 What's New 12/12/2025 Get your GitHub issues implemented by connecting them to Pochi tasks and create PRs directly from the sidebar with a breakdown of CI/Lint/Test results vscode@0.20.0. 07/02/2025 v0.30 supports indexing GitLab Merge…
read the full Tabby overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rtk or Tabby more popular?
rtk has 85,327 GitHub stars and Tabby has 33,921. rtk has the larger community by that measure.
Are rtk and Tabby free?
Both are open source. rtk is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Tabby has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between rtk and Tabby?
rtk is written in Rust and Tabby 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, rtk or Tabby?
Choose rtk if you want the larger community (85,327 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Tabby if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.