head to head · open source
Ollama vs Olares
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars, 18,873 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Olares has 5,335 stars, 332 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ollama leads on adoption by 3,381% (185,702 vs 5,335 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; Olares is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Olares 6%. Olares 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Ollama | Olares | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 186K | ★ 5.3K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 19K | ⑂ 332 |
| 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 Olares if
- You want the Olares feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Olares 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 Olares
Olares Your AI Agent. Your Data. Your Hardware. Install Olares · Manage Olares with AI · Contribute Olares is an open source personal cloud OS you operate in plain language, built to run AI agents and LLMs on hardware you own. Powered by Kubernetes, it turns your machines into a self hosted AI platform accessible from any browser, giving everyone from individual users to small teams a unified place for compute, storage, networking, and apps. 🌟 If Olares is useful to you, consider giving the project a star. Your support encourages us to keep improving it. Why Olares Great AI needs to know you. That requires…
read the full Olares 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 Olares more popular?
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars and Olares has 5,335. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and Olares free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and Olares under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and Olares?
Ollama is written in Go and Olares 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 Olares?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (185,702 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Olares if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.