head to head · open source
Ollama vs selfhost-ai
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars, 18,873 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. selfhost-ai has 953 stars, 238 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Ollama leads on adoption by 19,386% (185,702 vs 953 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; selfhost-ai is written in Shell under Apache-2.0. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, selfhost-ai 25%. 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 | selfhost-ai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 186K | ★ 953 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 19K | ⑂ 238 |
| 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 selfhost-ai if
- You want the selfhost-ai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and selfhost-ai 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 selfhost-ai
Selfhost AI — Self Hosted AI Automation Platform Deploy 30+ AI and automation tools with a single command. This open source Docker Compose template creates a complete self hosted environment with n8n (workflow automation), Flowise (AI agents), Ollama (local LLMs), vector databases (Qdrant, Weaviate), RAG engines, Supabase, monitoring stack, and more — all pre configured behind Caddy reverse proxy with automatic HTTPS. Plus, optionally import 300+ community workflows during setup! Table of Contents Key Features Why This Setup? What's Included Installation Quick Start and Usage Upgrading Quick Commands…
read the full selfhost-ai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ollama or selfhost-ai more popular?
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars and selfhost-ai has 953. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and selfhost-ai free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and selfhost-ai under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and selfhost-ai?
Ollama is written in Go and selfhost-ai in Shell. 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 selfhost-ai?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (185,702 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose selfhost-ai if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.