head to head · open source
Jan vs wechaty
Jan has 44,512 GitHub stars, 3,032 forks, 521 open issues and last shipped yesterday. wechaty has 23,269 stars, 2,879 forks, 198 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. Jan leads on adoption by 91% (44,512 vs 23,269 stars). Jan is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; wechaty is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Jan has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, wechaty 12%. Jan 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
| Jan | wechaty | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 23K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-12-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Jan if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick wechaty if
- You want the wechaty feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and wechaty fits your workflow better
About Jan
Jan is an open source desktop application that serves as a ChatGPT replacement, enabling users to run large language models (LLMs) locally on their machines or connect to cloud based providers like OpenAI and Anthropic. It is built with Tauri, TypeScript, and integrates llama.cpp for efficient local inference, targeting privacy conscious users who want full control over their AI workflows without sending data to third parties.
About wechaty
Wechaty is an open source conversational RPA (Robotic Process Automation) SDK for chatbot makers, written in TypeScript and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It lives in the Node.js and npm ecosystem, and it presents itself as a universal interface to messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and WeChat, with support for additional platforms. The project has been developed for roughly ten years, carries more than 23,000 stars and 2,800 forks on GitHub, and its documentation and community hub live at wechaty.js.org.
read the full wechaty overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Jan or wechaty more popular?
Jan has 44,512 GitHub stars and wechaty has 23,269. Jan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Jan and wechaty free?
Both are open source. Jan has no licence declared in this registry, and wechaty is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Jan and wechaty?
Jan is written in TypeScript and wechaty 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, Jan or wechaty?
Choose Jan if you want the larger community (44,512 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose wechaty if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.