head to head · open source
llama.cpp vs paradedb
llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars, 25,063 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. paradedb has 9,473 stars, 496 forks, 193 open issues and last shipped yesterday. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 1,306% (133,181 vs 9,473 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; paradedb is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. llama.cpp has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, paradedb 5%. paradedb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| llama.cpp | paradedb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 133K | ★ 9.5K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 496 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick llama.cpp if
- You weight community size — 133K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick paradedb if
- You want the paradedb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and paradedb fits your workflow better
About llama.cpp
llama.cpp LLM inference in C/C++ ggml / ops / maintainer PRs%20sort%3Aupdated desc) / dev stats / lib llama API / llama server REST API Quick start A few options to get llama.cpp installed on your machine: Visit and follow the instructions Run with Docker see our Docker documentation Download pre built binaries from the releases page Build from source by cloning this repository check out our build guide Once installed: VLM session with llama cli Built in web UI against llama serve Description The main goal of llama.cpp is to enable LLM (and VLM) inference with minimal setup and state of the art performance on a…
read the full llama.cpp overview →
About paradedb
Search without a second system. One Postgres for your application data, full text search, vector retrieval, and aggregations. Website • Docs • Community • Blog • Changelog Installation To install ParadeDB locally in a fresh Docker container and drop straight into a psql session: When you're ready to deploy, check out our hosting options. What is ParadeDB? ParadeDB upgrades Postgres with a custom index for fast full text and vector search, BM25 scoring, filtering, and aggregations. Your application data and search engine live in one database, with no second system to deploy and nothing to…
read the full paradedb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is llama.cpp or paradedb more popular?
llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars and paradedb has 9,473. llama.cpp has the larger community by that measure.
Are llama.cpp and paradedb free?
Both are open source. llama.cpp is licensed under MIT and paradedb under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between llama.cpp and paradedb?
llama.cpp is written in C++ and paradedb in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, llama.cpp or paradedb?
Choose llama.cpp if you want the larger community (133,181 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose paradedb if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.