head to head · open source
Ollama vs mcp-memory-service
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars, 18,873 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mcp-memory-service has 2,062 stars, 383 forks, 30 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ollama leads on adoption by 8,906% (185,702 vs 2,062 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; mcp-memory-service is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, mcp-memory-service 19%. 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 | mcp-memory-service | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 186K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 19K | ⑂ 383 |
| 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 mcp-memory-service if
- You want the mcp-memory-service 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 mcp-memory-service 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 mcp-memory-service
This repository has moved to GitHub Active development, issues, pull requests, CI and releases are at as of 5 September 2026. This copy stays here, readable and unchanged, so that existing links, issue numbers and pull request references keep resolving. It receives no further pushes and its CI no longer runs. Please do not open issues or pull requests here, they will not be seen. The wiki moved too: mcp memory service Persistent Shared Memory for AI Agent Pipelines Open source memory backend for AI agents — REST API, MCP, OAuth, CLI, dashboard . One self hosted service, every transport. Agents store decisions…
read the full mcp-memory-service overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ollama or mcp-memory-service more popular?
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars and mcp-memory-service has 2,062. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and mcp-memory-service free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and mcp-memory-service under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and mcp-memory-service?
Ollama is written in Go and mcp-memory-service 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 mcp-memory-service?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (185,702 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose mcp-memory-service if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.