head to head · open source
Ollama vs Open WebUI
Ollama has 181,184 GitHub stars, 17,921 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open WebUI has 152,426 stars, 22,301 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped today. Ollama leads on adoption by 19% (181,184 vs 152,426 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Open WebUI 15%. Open WebUI was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (llm, llms), 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 | Open WebUI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 181K | ★ 152K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 22K |
| 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 Open WebUI if
- You want the Open WebUI feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Open WebUI 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 Open WebUI
Open WebUI is a self hosted, open source AI interface that unifies access to local and cloud based large language models. It runs entirely in a web browser and supports Ollama for local model hosting alongside any OpenAI compatible API, including services like LMStudio, GroqCloud, Mistral, and OpenRouter. Built in Python, it functions as a drop in replacement for proprietary AI platforms, giving users full control over their model infrastructure and data.
read the full Open WebUI overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ollama or Open WebUI more popular?
Ollama has 181,184 GitHub stars and Open WebUI has 152,426. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and Open WebUI free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT, and Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Ollama and Open WebUI?
Ollama is written in Go and Open WebUI 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 Open WebUI?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (181,184 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Open WebUI if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.