head to head · open source
Ollama vs gpustack
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars, 18,873 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gpustack has 5,949 stars, 708 forks, 696 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ollama leads on adoption by 3,022% (185,702 vs 5,949 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; gpustack is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, gpustack 12%. Ollama was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (deepseek, llama, 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 | gpustack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 186K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 19K | ⑂ 708 |
| 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 gpustack if
- You want the gpustack 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 gpustack 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 gpustack
English 简体中文 日本語 Overview GPUStack is an open source GPU cluster manager for AI model serving and GPU instance provisioning. It configures and orchestrates inference engines — vLLM, SGLang, TensorRT LLM, or your own — and lets you launch SSH accessible GPU instances on demand. Its core features include: Multi Cluster GPU Management. Manages GPU clusters across multiple environments. This includes on premises servers, Kubernetes clusters, and cloud providers. Pluggable Inference Engines. Automatically configures high performance inference engines such as vLLM, SGLang, and TensorRT LLM. You can also add custom…
read the full gpustack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ollama or gpustack more popular?
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars and gpustack has 5,949. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and gpustack free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and gpustack under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and gpustack?
Ollama is written in Go and gpustack 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 gpustack?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (185,702 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose gpustack if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.