head to head · open source
Tabby vs Forgecode
Tabby has 33,882 GitHub stars, 1,789 forks, 335 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Forgecode has 7,637 stars, 1,467 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tabby leads on adoption by 344% (33,882 vs 7,637 stars). Tabby is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; Forgecode is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Tabby has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Forgecode 19%. Forgecode 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
| Tabby | Forgecode | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-06-30 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tabby if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Forgecode if
- You want the Forgecode feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Forgecode fits your workflow better
About Tabby
Tabby is a self hosted, open source AI coding assistant that acts as an on premises alternative to GitHub Copilot, aimed at developers and engineering teams that want code completion and chat without routing source code through a third party cloud service.
read the full Tabby overview →
About Forgecode
Forgecode is a terminal native AI coding agent written in Rust and built on ZSH that drives Claude, GPT, the O series, Grok, Deepseek, Gemini and more than 300 models through one command line interface, aimed at developers who want an AI pair programmer without leaving the shell.
read the full Forgecode overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More AI Assisted Coding projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Assisted Coding field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Tabby or Forgecode more popular?
Tabby has 33,882 GitHub stars and Forgecode has 7,637. Tabby has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tabby and Forgecode free?
Both are open source. Tabby has no licence declared in this registry, and Forgecode is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Tabby and Forgecode?
Tabby is written in Rust and Forgecode 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, Tabby or Forgecode?
Choose Tabby if you want the larger community (33,882 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Forgecode if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.