Open source alternatives to BoltAI

By GitHub stars it is AnythingLLM, with 68,248 stars and a commit on 13 Nov. Choose AnythingLLM when you need a free local AI chat app on Windows and Linux as well as Mac, not a paid Mac licence. Next come Cherry Studio (53,490 stars) and Jan (45,713 stars).

Yes. The code of all 4 is public under MIT, AGPL 3.0 or Apache 2.0, so you can use them with no licence fee. Running one yourself costs the server and your time to look after it, and some makers also sell a hosted plan.

Start from the job you use BoltAI for. Choose Jan when you need one free chat app for local models and your own API keys on Windows and Linux as well as Mac. Choose Cherry Studio when you need the same multi-model app on Windows and Linux as well as Mac, with your own API keys.

All 4: AnythingLLM, Cherry Studio, Jan and Zola. Each tool's page says what it needs to run.

3 of the 4 we track had a commit in the last 30 days, among them AnythingLLM, Cherry Studio and Jan. The quietest is Zola, last changed on 11 Dec 2025. A recent commit shows the project is kept up, not that it will stay that way.

Apache 2.0 (2), MIT (1), AGPL 3.0 (1). MIT, BSD and Apache let you change and reuse the code freely. GPL and AGPL ask you to share your changes under the same licence when you give the software to others, and AGPL also counts letting people use it over a network.

The hosting. BoltAI's maker runs the servers for you; with an open source tool the updates, backups, security fixes and support are yours, unless you take the maker's hosted plan. Features differ too, so check what each one imports and exports before you move your data.