head to head · open source
Tabby vs Frontman
Tabby has 33,882 GitHub stars, 1,789 forks, 335 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Frontman has 701 stars, 52 forks, 236 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Tabby leads on adoption by 4,733% (33,882 vs 701 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 | ★ 701 |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | ReScript |
| Last push | 2026-06-30 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 52 |
| 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 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 Frontman
Frontman is an open source AI coding agent that runs inside your browser and edits your project's real source files from a live view of the running application, built for product managers, designers, and frontend developers who need small frontend fixes without opening an IDE.
read the full Frontman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tabby or Frontman more popular?
Tabby has 33,882 GitHub stars and Frontman has 701. 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 (33,882 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Frontman if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.