head to head · open source
Ollama vs burr
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars, 18,873 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. burr has 2,589 stars, 215 forks, 99 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ollama leads on adoption by 7,073% (185,702 vs 2,589 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; burr is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, burr 8%. Ollama was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llms), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| Ollama | burr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 186K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 19K | ⑂ 215 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ollama if
- You weight community size — 186K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick burr if
- You want the burr 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 burr fits your workflow better
About Ollama
Ollama Start building with open models. Download macOS or download manually Windows or download manually Linux Manual install instructions Docker The official Ollama Docker image ollama/ollama is available on Docker Hub. Libraries ollama python ollama js Community Discord 𝕏 (Twitter) Reddit Get started You'll be prompted to run a model or connect Ollama to your existing agents or applications such as Claude Code , OpenClaw , OpenCode , Codex , Copilot , and more. Coding To launch a specific integration: Supported integrations include Claude Code, Codex, Copilot CLI, DeepSeek Harness, Droid, and OpenCode. AI…
read the full Ollama overview →
About burr
Apache Burr (incubating) Apache Burr (incubating) makes it easy to develop applications that make decisions (chatbots, agents, simulations, etc...) from simple python building blocks. Apache Burr works well for any application that uses LLMs, and can integrate with any of your favorite frameworks. Burr includes a UI that can track/monitor/trace your system in real time, along with pluggable persisters (e.g. for memory) to save & load application state. Link to documentation. Quick ( [!NOTE] In version 0.43.0, the optional CLI included with [start] , [learn] , and [cli] requires Python 3.10+. Core library usage…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ollama or burr more popular?
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars and burr has 2,589. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and burr free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and burr under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and burr?
Ollama is written in Go and burr 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, Ollama or burr?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (185,702 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose burr if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.