Onyx (formerly Danswer) alternatives
Short answer
We track 7 self-hosted alternatives to Onyx (formerly Danswer): AnythingLLM, Open Notebook, MaxKB, RAGFlow, PrivateGPT, FastGPT and Khoj.
AnythingLLM (same category): cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €69.99/mo), lighter official minimum (2 GB vs 10 GB RAM), fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core), larger community (67.4k vs 32.8k GitHub stars) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack).
Open Notebook (same category): cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €69.99/mo), lighter official minimum (4 GB vs 10 GB RAM) and fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core).
MaxKB (same category): cheaper to host (from €35.99/mo vs €69.99/mo), lighter official minimum (8 GB vs 10 GB RAM) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack).
Last updated · how we rank · sources
Onyx (formerly Danswer) alternatives compared
| # | App | Advantages over Onyx (formerly Danswer) | Est. server cost | Official hardware | License | Stars | Last commit | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Onyx (formerly Danswer) (this app) | Active | from €69.99/mo | minimum 4 vCPU · 10 GB RAM · 32 GB disk (recommended 8 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 500 GB disk) | MIT (Community Edition) + Onyx Enterprise License (ee directories) | 32.8k | Oct 22, 2026 | — |
| 1 | AnythingLLM Same category | cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €69.99/mo); lighter official minimum (2 GB vs 10 GB RAM); fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core); larger community (67.4k vs 32.8k GitHub stars); simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack) | from €19.99/mo | minimum 2 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 5 GB disk | MIT | 67.4k | Oct 22, 2026 | Onyx (formerly Danswer) vs AnythingLLM |
| 2 | Open Notebook Same category | cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €69.99/mo); lighter official minimum (4 GB vs 10 GB RAM); fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core) | from €19.99/mo | minimum 4 GB RAM | MIT | 40.5k | Oct 5, 2026 | Onyx (formerly Danswer) vs Open Notebook |
| 3 | MaxKB Same category | cheaper to host (from €35.99/mo vs €69.99/mo); lighter official minimum (8 GB vs 10 GB RAM); simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack) Trade-off: Onyx (formerly Danswer) has fewer license conditions (Open core vs Copyleft (GPL)) | from €35.99/mo | minimum 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 100 GB disk | GPL-3.0 | 23.0k | Oct 21, 2026 | Onyx (formerly Danswer) vs MaxKB |
| 4 | RAGFlow Same category | fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core); larger community (92.6k vs 32.8k GitHub stars) | from €69.99/mo | recommended 4 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 50 GB disk (no separate minimum published) | Apache-2.0 | 92.6k | Oct 22, 2026 | Onyx (formerly Danswer) vs RAGFlow |
| 5 | PrivateGPT Same category | fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core); larger community (57.6k vs 32.8k GitHub stars) | not estimated (no official RAM figure) | not published | Apache-2.0 | 57.6k | Oct 20, 2026 | Onyx (formerly Danswer) vs PrivateGPT |
| 6 | FastGPT Same category | cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €69.99/mo); lighter official minimum (4 GB vs 10 GB RAM) Trade-off: Onyx (formerly Danswer) has fewer license conditions (Open core vs Custom / conditional) | from €19.99/mo | minimum 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM (recommended 2 vCPU · 8 GB RAM) | FastGPT Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with conditions) | 29.9k | Oct 22, 2026 | Onyx (formerly Danswer) vs FastGPT |
| 7 | Khoj AI search over company documents and notes | None in our data (differs in features) Trade-off: Onyx (formerly Danswer) has fewer license conditions (Open core vs Network copyleft (AGPL)) | not estimated (no official RAM figure) | not published | AGPL-3.0 | 37.8k | Aug 2, 2026 | Onyx (formerly Danswer) vs Khoj |
Ranked by the number of objective advantages each alternative has over the app (cheaper estimated server cost, lighter official RAM figure, no GPU needed, fewer license conditions, better maintenance status, at least 1.5× the GitHub stars, simpler deploy). Ties: same-category apps first, then more GitHub stars. License order used: Permissive (MIT/Apache) → Open core → Copyleft (GPL) or Custom conditions → Network copyleft (AGPL) → Source-available. Archived projects are not listed as alternatives.
What each alternative is
- AnythingLLM (Knowledge base & RAG): All-in-one private chat with your documents, agents and an embeddable widget.
- Open Notebook (Knowledge base & RAG): Private, self-hosted alternative to Google NotebookLM with your choice of AI models.
- MaxKB (Knowledge base & RAG): Enterprise knowledge-base and agent platform with RAG and workflows.
- RAGFlow (Knowledge base & RAG): RAG engine with deep document parsing (OCR, layout and tables) and cited answers.
- PrivateGPT (Knowledge base & RAG): API-first private document Q&A that sits on top of your own LLM server.
- FastGPT (Knowledge base & RAG): Knowledge-base Q&A and visual AI workflow platform.
- Khoj (AI search & research assistants): Personal and team AI "second brain" for your documents and the web. Why it is listed: All of them index your own documents or workplace apps and answer questions about them in a chat interface.
Onyx (formerly Danswer) alternatives: FAQ
What is the best self-hosted alternative to Onyx (formerly Danswer)?
By our objective ranking: 1. AnythingLLM (cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €69.99/mo); lighter official minimum (2 GB vs 10 GB RAM); fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core); larger community (67.4k vs 32.8k GitHub stars); simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack)) 2. Open Notebook (cheaper to host (from €19.99/mo vs €69.99/mo); lighter official minimum (4 GB vs 10 GB RAM); fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Open core)) 3. MaxKB (cheaper to host (from €35.99/mo vs €69.99/mo); lighter official minimum (8 GB vs 10 GB RAM); simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack)). "Best" depends on the features you need; the ranking only counts cost, hardware, license, maintenance, community size and deploy complexity.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Onyx (formerly Danswer)?
Yes, by estimated server cost: AnythingLLM (from €19.99/mo), Open Notebook (from €19.99/mo), MaxKB (from €35.99/mo), FastGPT (from €19.99/mo). Onyx (formerly Danswer): from €69.99/mo.
Which Onyx (formerly Danswer) alternative has the most permissive license?
AnythingLLM: MIT (Permissive); Open Notebook: MIT (Permissive); RAGFlow: Apache-2.0 (Permissive); PrivateGPT: Apache-2.0 (Permissive). Onyx (formerly Danswer) is MIT (Community Edition) + Onyx Enterprise License (ee directories) (Open core). Not legal advice.
Which Onyx (formerly Danswer) alternative needs the least hardware?
AnythingLLM: minimum 2 vCPU · 2 GB RAM · 5 GB disk; Open Notebook: minimum 4 GB RAM; MaxKB: minimum 4 vCPU · 8 GB RAM · 100 GB disk; FastGPT: minimum 2 vCPU · 4 GB RAM (recommended 2 vCPU · 8 GB RAM). Onyx (formerly Danswer): minimum 4 vCPU · 10 GB RAM · 32 GB disk (recommended 8 vCPU · 16 GB RAM · 500 GB disk).
Which SaaS products does Onyx (formerly Danswer) replace?
In our mapping, Onyx (formerly Danswer) is a self-hosted alternative to Notion AI, Glean and Microsoft 365 Copilot, with gaps listed on each comparison page.
Related
Sources
- Onyx (formerly Danswer) GitHub repository: github.com/onyx-dot-app/onyx
- Onyx (formerly Danswer) documentation, Onyx (formerly Danswer) hardware requirements: docs.onyx.app/deployment/getting_started/resourcing
- Onyx (formerly Danswer) license: github.com/onyx-dot-app/onyx/blob/main/LICENSE
- Onyx (formerly Danswer) deploy instructions: github.com/onyx-dot-app/onyx#readme
- AnythingLLM GitHub repository: github.com/Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm
- Open Notebook GitHub repository: github.com/lfnovo/open-notebook
- MaxKB GitHub repository: github.com/1Panel-dev/MaxKB
- RAGFlow GitHub repository: github.com/infiniflow/ragflow
- PrivateGPT GitHub repository: github.com/zylon-ai/private-gpt
- FastGPT GitHub repository: github.com/labring/FastGPT
- Khoj GitHub repository: github.com/khoj-ai/khoj
- Hetzner Cloud pricing used for cost estimates (read 2026-10-22): www.hetzner.com/cloud/regular-performance
- GitHub stars and commits: GitHub REST API, refreshed daily