Kotaemon vs OpenHands
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Kotaemon
Clean RAG UI for chatting with your documents
VS
OpenHands
Autonomous AI software engineering agent
| Feature | Kotaemon | OpenHands |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 25,691 | ★ 83,415 |
| First released | 2024 | 2024 |
| Replaces | NotebookLM | Devin, GitHub Copilot Workspace |
Why pick each one
Choose Kotaemon if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 25.7k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
Choose OpenHands if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 83.4k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Kotaemon or OpenHands better?
Neither is universally better. OpenHands has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Kotaemon and OpenHands free and open-source?
Yes. Kotaemon is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenHands under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kotaemon and OpenHands with Docker?
Kotaemon: yes. OpenHands: yes.