head to head · open source
Yaak vs RWKV-Runner
Yaak has 19,243 GitHub stars, 817 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. RWKV-Runner has 6,482 stars, 601 forks, 178 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. Yaak leads on adoption by 197% (19,243 vs 6,482 stars). Yaak is written in TypeScript under MIT; RWKV-Runner is written in TypeScript under MIT. Yaak has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, RWKV-Runner 9%. Yaak 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.
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Side by side
| Yaak | RWKV-Runner | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 19K | ★ 6.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 817 | ⑂ 601 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Yaak if
- You weight community size — 19K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick RWKV-Runner if
- You want the RWKV-Runner feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and RWKV-Runner fits your workflow better
About Yaak
Yaak is a desktop API client for REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, and Server Sent Events. It is built with Tauri, Rust, and React, and it lives in the developer tools ecosystem for API development and testing. The project presents itself as an offline first, privacy first alternative to Postman, Insomnia, and Bruno.
About RWKV-Runner
RWKV Runner is a management and startup tool for RWKV, an open source large language model that is available for commercial use. It ships as a lightweight executable of only a few megabytes and automates the work of getting a model running, so that the user does not have to assemble the runtime, dependencies, and serving stack by hand. The project is written in TypeScript and built with Wails, and it is distributed under the MIT license from the josStorer repository. It lives in the RWKV ecosystem and in the broader local inference tooling space, with a companion site at rwkv.com.
read the full RWKV-Runner overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Yaak or RWKV-Runner more popular?
Yaak has 19,243 GitHub stars and RWKV-Runner has 6,482. Yaak has the larger community by that measure.
Are Yaak and RWKV-Runner free?
Both are open source. Yaak is licensed under MIT and RWKV-Runner under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Yaak and RWKV-Runner?
Yaak is written in TypeScript and RWKV-Runner 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, Yaak or RWKV-Runner?
Choose Yaak if you want the larger community (19,243 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose RWKV-Runner if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.