head to head · open source

llama.cpp vs server

llama.cpp has 128,581 GitHub stars, 23,334 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. server has 8,237 stars, 2,102 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped yesterday. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 1,461% (128,581 vs 8,237 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; server is written in C++ under GPL-2.0. llama.cpp has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, server 26%. server 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.

llama.cpp ★ 129K server ★ 8.2K category AI & Machine Learning

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Side by side

	llama.cpp	server
GitHub stars	★ 129K	★ 8.2K
License	MIT	GPL-2.0
Written in	C++	C++
Last push	2026-09-17	2026-09-17
Forks	⑂ 23K	⑂ 2.1K
Self-hosting	Yes	Yes
Data ownership	Your server	Your server

pick llama.cpp if

You weight community size — 129K stars and counting
You want the MIT license terms
Your stack matches C++
You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance

full llama.cpp profile →

pick server if

You want the server feature set and don't need the biggest community
You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
Your stack matches C++
You evaluated both and server fits your workflow better

full server profile →

About llama.cpp

llama.cpp is a C/C++ library and set of command line tools for running large language models (LLMs) and vision language models (VLMs) locally. It enables inference without external dependencies, targeting diverse hardware including Apple Silicon, x86 CPUs, NVIDIA GPUs (via CUDA), AMD GPUs (via HIP), and other accelerators. The project lives in the ggml ecosystem, leveraging the ggml tensor computation library for low level operations and quantized model execution.

read the full llama.cpp overview →

About server

MariaDB Server is a community developed, GPL 2.0 relational database server forked from MySQL by the original MySQL developers, aimed at teams that want MySQL compatibility with a sanely licensed, independently governed SQL server.

read the full server overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is llama.cpp or server more popular?

llama.cpp has 128,581 GitHub stars and server has 8,237. llama.cpp has the larger community by that measure.

Are llama.cpp and server free?

Both are open source. llama.cpp is licensed under MIT and server under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between llama.cpp and server?

llama.cpp is written in C++ and server in C++. 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 server?

Choose llama.cpp if you want the larger community (128,581 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose server if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.