Kotaemon vs Quivr
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Kotaemon | Quivr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 25,778 | ★ 39,553 |
| First released | 2024 | 2023 |
| Replaces | NotebookLM | NotebookLM |
What are Kotaemon and Quivr?
Kotaemon
Kotaemon is an open-source, customizable RAG application for chatting with documents. It offers a clean interface with multimodal document support, citations, and a complex reasoning pipeline.
- Clean document chat UI
- Citation support
- Multimodal RAG
- Configurable pipelines
Quivr
Quivr is an open-source RAG framework that helps developers build personal knowledge assistants over documents. It focuses on making retrieval-augmented generation simple and embeddable into products.
- RAG framework
- Document ingestion
- Embeddable into apps
- Many file types
Kotaemon vs Quivr: key differences
Both projects are written in Python. Quivr is the lighter option, starting around 2,048 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Kotaemon.
Why pick each one
Choose Kotaemon if…
- Clean citation UI
- Multimodal document support
- GraphRAG support included
Watch out for
- Heavy dependency stack
- Configuration can be involved
Choose Quivr if…
- Developer-friendly RAG core
- Embeds into products
- Many file formats
Watch out for
- Requires LLM API keys
- Project scope shifted often
Frequently asked questions
Is Kotaemon or Quivr better?
Neither is universally better. Quivr has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Kotaemon and Quivr free and open-source?
Yes. Kotaemon is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Quivr under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kotaemon and Quivr with Docker?
Kotaemon: yes. Quivr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Kotaemon or Quivr?
Quivr has the smaller minimum footprint at 2,048 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Kotaemon. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.