head to head · open source
llama.cpp vs vearch
llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars, 25,063 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vearch has 2,333 stars, 366 forks, 170 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 5,609% (133,181 vs 2,333 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; vearch is written in Python under Apache-2.0. llama.cpp has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, vearch 16%. 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 | vearch | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 133K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-07-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 25K | ⑂ 366 |
| 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 vearch if
- You want the vearch feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and vearch 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 vearch
简体中文 English Overview Vearch is a cloud native distributed vector database for efficient similarity search of embedding vectors in your AI applications. Key features Hybrid search : Both vector search and scalar filtering. Performance : Fast vector retrieval search from millions of objects in milliseconds. Scalability & Reliability : Replication and elastic scaling out. Document Restful APIs Tutorial 参考文档 OpenAPIs API Documentation SDK Usage Cases Use Vearch as a Memory Backend Vearch integrates with popular AI frameworks: Real world Demos VisualSearch : Vearch can be leveraged to build a complete visual search…
read the full vearch overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is llama.cpp or vearch more popular?
llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars and vearch has 2,333. llama.cpp has the larger community by that measure.
Are llama.cpp and vearch free?
Both are open source. llama.cpp is licensed under MIT and vearch under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between llama.cpp and vearch?
llama.cpp is written in C++ and vearch in Python. 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 vearch?
Choose llama.cpp if you want the larger community (133,181 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose vearch if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.