head to head · open source
Ollama vs kvcached
Ollama has 186,675 GitHub stars, 19,023 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kvcached has 2,038 stars, 239 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ollama leads on adoption by 9,060% (186,675 vs 2,038 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; kvcached is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, kvcached 12%. Ollama was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | kvcached | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 187K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-11 | 2026-11-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 19K | ⑂ 239 |
| 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 kvcached if
- You want the kvcached 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 kvcached 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 kvcached
Make GPU Sharing Flexible and Easy kvcached (KV cache daemon) is a KV cache library for LLM serving/training on shared GPUs . By bringing OS style virtual memory abstraction to LLM systems, it enables elastic and demand driven KV cache allocation, improving GPU utilization under dynamic workloads. kvcached achieves this by decoupling GPU virtual addressing from physical memory allocation for KV caches. It allows serving engines to initially reserve virtual memory only and later back it with physical GPU memory when the cache is actively used. This decoupling enables on demand allocation and flexible sharing…
read the full kvcached overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ollama or kvcached more popular?
Ollama has 186,675 GitHub stars and kvcached has 2,038. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and kvcached free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and kvcached under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and kvcached?
Ollama is written in Go and kvcached 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 kvcached?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (186,675 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose kvcached if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.