head to head · open source
Ollama vs server
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars, 18,873 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. server has 8,506 stars, 2,290 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ollama leads on adoption by 2,083% (185,702 vs 8,506 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; server is written in C++ under GPL-2.0. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, server 27%. server 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 | server | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 186K | ★ 8.5K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 19K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| 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 server if
- You want the server feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and server 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 server
MariaDB Server MariaDB Server is one of the most widely deployed open source relational databases. It is built by a global community of contributors together with the MariaDB Foundation and MariaDB plc, and it powers workloads from small applications to large scale production systems. MariaDB began as a fork of MySQL, led by the original MySQL developers, and it maintains a high degree of MySQL compatibility. It has since grown into a database with its own capabilities, including native vector search, multiple pluggable storage engines, synchronous clustering, and analytical features, while remaining a…
read the full server 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 server more popular?
Ollama has 185,702 GitHub stars and server has 8,506. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and server free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and server under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and server?
Ollama is written in Go and server in C++. 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 server?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (185,702 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose server if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.