head to head · open source

llama.cpp vs zvec

llama.cpp has 128,581 GitHub stars, 23,334 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zvec has 15,962 stars, 996 forks, 56 open issues and last shipped yesterday. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 706% (128,581 vs 15,962 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; zvec is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. llama.cpp has attracted 18% 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 ★ 129K zvec ★ 16K category AI & Machine Learning

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Side by side

	llama.cpp	zvec
GitHub stars	★ 129K	★ 16K
License	MIT	Apache-2.0
Written in	C++	C++
Last push	2026-09-17	2026-09-17
Forks	⑂ 23K	⑂ 996
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 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 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 zvec

Zvec is an open source, in process vector database written in C++ and licensed under Apache 2.0, built to embed directly into applications so that vector search, full text search, and hybrid retrieval run inside the developer's own process instead of behind a separate service.

read the full zvec overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is llama.cpp or zvec more popular?

llama.cpp has 128,581 GitHub stars and zvec has 15,962. 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 (128,581 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose zvec if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.