head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs Cherry Studio
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars, 22,923 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cherry Studio has 53,202 stars, 5,164 forks, 1,514 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 196% (157,575 vs 53,202 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Cherry Studio is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Cherry Studio 10%. Cherry Studio was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (llm, ollama), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Open WebUI | Cherry Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 158K | ★ 53K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 5.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Open WebUI if
- You weight community size — 158K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Cherry Studio if
- You want the Cherry Studio feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Cherry Studio fits your workflow better
About Open WebUI
Open WebUI 👋 Open WebUI is a home for AI , a self hosted AI platform that's extensible , feature rich , user friendly, and built to run entirely offline . With support for Ollama and OpenAI compatible APIs , it gives you a powerful, provider agnostic interface for both local and cloud based models. Passionate about open source AI? Join our team → [!TIP] Looking for an Enterprise Plan? – Speak with Our Sales Team Today! For more information, be sure to check out our Open WebUI Documentation. Key Features of Open WebUI ⭐ 🚀 Effortless Setup : Install seamlessly via pip, uv, Docker, or Kubernetes (kubectl…
read the full Open WebUI overview →
About Cherry Studio
English Official Site Documents Development Feedback [![][deepwiki shield]][deepwiki link] [![][twitter shield]][twitter link] [![][discord shield]][discord link] [![][telegram shield]][telegram link] [![][github release shield]][github release link] [![][github nightly shield]][github nightly link] [![][github contributors shield]][github contributors link] [![][license shield]][license link] [![][commercial shield]][commercial link] [![][sponsor shield]][sponsor link] 🍒 Cherry Studio Cherry Studio is a desktop client that supports multiple LLM providers, available on Windows, Mac and Linux. 👏 Join Telegram…
read the full Cherry Studio overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More AI Interaction & Interfaces projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the AI Interaction & Interfaces field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or Cherry Studio more popular?
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars and Cherry Studio has 53,202. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and Cherry Studio free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and Cherry Studio is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and Cherry Studio?
Open WebUI is written in Python and Cherry Studio in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Open WebUI or Cherry Studio?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (157,575 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Cherry Studio if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.