Kotaemon vs Verba
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
Verba
Open-source RAG chatbot powered by Weaviate
| Feature | Kotaemon | Verba |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 25,691 | ★ 7,713 |
| First released | 2024 | 2023 |
| Replaces | NotebookLM | NotebookLM |
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 Verba if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7.7k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Kotaemon or Verba better?
Neither is universally better. Kotaemon has the larger community, while Verba is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kotaemon and Verba free and open-source?
Yes. Kotaemon is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Verba under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kotaemon and Verba with Docker?
Kotaemon: yes. Verba: yes.