head to head · open source
Ollama vs LiteLLM
Ollama has 181,184 GitHub stars, 17,921 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. LiteLLM has 59,036 stars, 11,545 forks, 5,022 open issues and last shipped today. Ollama leads on adoption by 207% (181,184 vs 59,036 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; LiteLLM is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, LiteLLM 20%. LiteLLM 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.
← all 13541 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Ollama | LiteLLM | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 181K | ★ 59K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 12K |
| 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 LiteLLM if
- You want the LiteLLM feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and LiteLLM 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 LiteLLM
LiteLLM is an open source AI gateway that provides a unified interface to call over 100 large language model (LLM) providers—including OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Google VertexAI, and vLLM—using the OpenAI compatible API format. It runs as both a Python SDK for direct integration and as a standalone proxy server for centralized, team or organization wide use.
read the full LiteLLM overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More Machine Learning Infrastructure projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Machine Learning Infrastructure field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ollama or LiteLLM more popular?
Ollama has 181,184 GitHub stars and LiteLLM has 59,036. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and LiteLLM free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT, and LiteLLM has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Ollama and LiteLLM?
Ollama is written in Go and LiteLLM 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 LiteLLM?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (181,184 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose LiteLLM if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.