head to head · open source

llama.cpp vs zvec

llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars, 25,063 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zvec has 16,176 stars, 1,015 forks, 56 open issues and last shipped yesterday. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 723% (133,181 vs 16,176 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; zvec is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. llama.cpp has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, zvec 6%. 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.

llama.cpp ★ 133K zvec ★ 16K category AI & Machine Learning

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Side by side

	llama.cpp	zvec
GitHub stars	★ 133K	★ 16K
License	MIT	Apache-2.0
Written in	C++	C++
Last push	2026-11-02	2026-11-02
Forks	⑂ 25K	⑂ 1.0K
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

full llama.cpp profile →

pick zvec if

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

full zvec profile →

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 zvec

English 中文 🚀 Quickstart 🏠 Home 📚 Docs 📊 Benchmarks 🔎 DeepWiki 🎮 Discord 🐦 X (Twitter) Zvec is an open source, in process vector database — lightweight, lightning fast, and designed to embed directly into applications. Battle tested within Alibaba Group, it delivers production grade, low latency and scalable similarity search with minimal setup. [!Important] 🚀 v0.7.0 (August 24, 2026) zvec grep ( zg ) : Local first workspace search that unifies ripgrep, BM25, and vector search behind one CLI — built for humans and AI agents. ReMe integration : zvec is now a file store backend in ReMe, the memory…

read the full zvec overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is llama.cpp or zvec more popular?

llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars and zvec has 16,176. llama.cpp has the larger community by that measure.

Are llama.cpp and zvec free?

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

What is the difference between llama.cpp and zvec?

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

Choose llama.cpp if you want the larger community (133,181 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zvec if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.