head to head · open source
Ollama vs cortexdb
Ollama has 186,906 GitHub stars, 19,075 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped today. cortexdb has 501 stars, 32 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped today. Ollama leads on adoption by 37,207% (186,906 vs 501 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; cortexdb is written in Go under MIT. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, cortexdb 6%. cortexdb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (go, golang, llm), 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 | cortexdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 187K | ★ 501 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-14 | 2026-11-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 19K | ⑂ 32 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ollama if
- You weight community size — 187K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cortexdb if
- You want the cortexdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and cortexdb 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 cortexdb
CortexDB AI memory and a knowledge graph in one SQLite file. Pure Go, no service to run, works without an embedding model. Install Use The plugin gives Claude Code and Codex one global brain at /.cortexdb/cortexdb.db , /remember , /recall and an auto recall hook. A session starts with an index of what the brain knows about its project, an agent about to open a file is told what happened to it before, and a session's durable facts are captured with text and credentials kept out. Point several agents or machines at one cortexdb grpc and they share the same memory and graph. In Codex, review and trust the plugin…
read the full cortexdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ollama or cortexdb more popular?
Ollama has 186,906 GitHub stars and cortexdb has 501. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and cortexdb free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and cortexdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and cortexdb?
Ollama is written in Go and cortexdb in Go. 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 cortexdb?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (186,906 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cortexdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.