head to head · open source
Ollama vs Compartment
Ollama has 181,184 GitHub stars, 17,921 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Compartment has 581 stars, 4 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Ollama leads on adoption by 31,085% (181,184 vs 581 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; Compartment is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Compartment 1%. Ollama 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
| Ollama | Compartment | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 181K | ★ 581 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 4 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ollama if
- You weight community size — 181K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Compartment if
- You want the Compartment 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 Compartment fits your workflow better
About Ollama
Ollama is a Go based, MIT licensed runtime that downloads and runs open source large language models such as DeepSeek, Qwen, Gemma, GLM, MiniMax and gpt oss locally on a user's own machine, and it is aimed at developers and teams that want model inference without routing prompts through a hosted API.
read the full Ollama overview →
About Compartment
Compartment is an Apache 2.0 Python MCP server that gives AI agents encrypted, fully offline long term memory in a single vault on the user's own computer, built for people running Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, Hermes Agent, OpenClaw or any other MCP client who want persistent memory with no account, no API key, no network and no telemetry.
read the full Compartment overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ollama or Compartment more popular?
Ollama has 181,184 GitHub stars and Compartment has 581. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and Compartment free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and Compartment under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and Compartment?
Ollama is written in Go and Compartment 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 Compartment?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (181,184 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Compartment if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.