head to head · open source
llama.cpp vs unbody
llama.cpp has 128,619 GitHub stars, 23,351 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. unbody has 524 stars, 47 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 24,446% (128,619 vs 524 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; unbody is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. llama.cpp has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, unbody 9%. llama.cpp 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 | unbody | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 129K | ★ 524 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-04-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 47 |
| 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
pick unbody if
- You want the unbody feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and unbody fits your workflow better
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 unbody
Unbody is an Apache 2.0, TypeScript, modular open source backend for building AI native software that is designed for knowledge rather than static data, and it is aimed at developers and teams that want to self host the ingestion, indexing and retrieval layer behind chat, search and agentic applications.
read the full unbody overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is llama.cpp or unbody more popular?
llama.cpp has 128,619 GitHub stars and unbody has 524. llama.cpp has the larger community by that measure.
Are llama.cpp and unbody free?
Both are open source. llama.cpp is licensed under MIT and unbody under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between llama.cpp and unbody?
llama.cpp is written in C++ and unbody 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, llama.cpp or unbody?
Choose llama.cpp if you want the larger community (128,619 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose unbody if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.