head to head · open source
Tabby vs Frontman
Tabby has 33,917 GitHub stars, 1,792 forks, 335 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Frontman has 722 stars, 51 forks, 236 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Tabby leads on adoption by 4,598% (33,917 vs 722 stars). Tabby is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; Frontman is written in ReScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Tabby has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Frontman 7%. Frontman was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, 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
| Tabby | Frontman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 722 |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | ReScript |
| Last push | 2026-06-30 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 51 |
| 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 Frontman if
- You want the Frontman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches ReScript
- You evaluated both and Frontman fits your workflow better
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 →
About Frontman
Let product and design ship frontend fixes without opening an IDE Frontman is an open source AI coding agent that lives in your browser. Click any element in your running app, describe the change in plain English, and Frontman edits the actual source files with instant hot reload. It sees the live DOM, component tree, computed CSS, routes, source maps, and server logs, so non technical teammates can make precise frontend fixes without guessing which file owns the UI. Docs · Next.js · Astro · Vite · Discord · Demo What You Can Ask Frontman Frontman is built for small frontend changes that usually get stuck in…
read the full Frontman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tabby or Frontman more popular?
Tabby has 33,917 GitHub stars and Frontman has 722. Tabby has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tabby and Frontman free?
Neither Tabby nor Frontman declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Tabby and Frontman?
Tabby is written in Rust and Frontman in ReScript. 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 Frontman?
Choose Tabby if you want the larger community (33,917 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Frontman if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.