Kotaemon vs Quivr
A side-by-side look at pricing, capabilities, pros, cons, and our editorial scores.
Tagline
Kotaemon
Open-source RAG UI for chatting with your own documents, locally or self-hosted.Quivr
Open-source RAG framework for building custom AI assistants over your own documents in a few lines of Python.Pricing
Kotaemon
FreeΒ· Free, open-source (MIT-style); self-hosted infrastructure costs onlyQuivr
FreeΒ· Open source (pip install quivr-core); pay only for LLM/vector-store usageFree trial
Kotaemon
YesQuivr
YesAPI
Kotaemon
YesQuivr
YesPlatforms
Kotaemon
webmacoslinuxapi
Quivr
api
Open source
Kotaemon
Yes Β· Apache-2.0Quivr
Yes Β· Apache-2.0GitHub stars
Kotaemon
25,789
checked 2026-09-29
Quivr
7,414
checked 2026-09-29
Last GitHub push
Kotaemon
2026-07-14Quivr
2025-02-21First commit
Kotaemon
2024-03Quivr
2024-05Model used
Kotaemon
Multi-model (OpenAI, LlamaCPP, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint)Quivr
Multi-model (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Gemma)Best for
Kotaemon
Pick Kotaemon if you want a hackable, self-hosted RAG UI over your own documents with citation support and full control of the LLM and vector store.Quivr
Pick Quivr if you are a Python developer who wants a lightweight, model-agnostic RAG library you can extend rather than a hosted chat-your-docs SaaS.Not for
Kotaemon
Skip it if you need a polished SaaS product, enterprise SSO out of the box, or a managed RAG service you don't have to deploy yourself.Quivr
Skip it if you want a turnkey no-code product with a polished UI, hosted vector store, and a sales team to call.Editorial score
Kotaemon
7.0 / 10Quivr
8.4 / 10Use cases
Kotaemon
document-qaprivate-ragcitation-grounded-chatlocal-llm-frontendknowledge-base-search
Quivr
document-qacustom-knowledge-baserag-pipelineinternal-assistantschat-with-pdf
Pros
Kotaemon
- Genuinely model- and vector-store-agnostic; swap backends without touching code
- Citations with source highlights, not just naked LLM answers
- One-click HuggingFace Spaces deploy or local installer scripts
- Active GitHub project with clear extension hooks for developers
Quivr
- Genuinely open source and pip-installable, no vendor lock-in
- Model-agnostic: OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and Gemma supported
- Minimal boilerplate to get a working RAG assistant running
- Pairs with Megaparse for tougher PDF and document ingestion
- Customizable pipeline with tools and web search when you need more
Cons
Kotaemon
- Gradio UI feels prototype-grade compared to commercial RAG products
- Default admin/admin credentials and thin auth aren't production-ready
- Self-hosted only β no managed SaaS option if you don't want to run it
Quivr
- Python library, not a hosted product or UI
- You manage infra, vector store, and evals yourself
- Documentation site is sparse compared to larger RAG frameworks
- LLM and embedding costs are on you
Editorial score: rule-based, 0β10, from AI-assisted profile inputs (see /methodology) β not a user rating; βββ means unscored. βNot listedβ means we have no record of it, not that it is absent. GitHub figures and prices carry the date they were checked or captured; prices are shown as published, unconverted.
Pick Kotaemon if
- β Genuinely model- and vector-store-agnostic; swap backends without touching code
- β Citations with source highlights, not just naked LLM answers
- β One-click HuggingFace Spaces deploy or local installer scripts
- β Active GitHub project with clear extension hooks for developers
Pick Quivr if
- β Genuinely open source and pip-installable, no vendor lock-in
- β Model-agnostic: OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and Gemma supported
- β Minimal boilerplate to get a working RAG assistant running
- β Pairs with Megaparse for tougher PDF and document ingestion