head to head · open source
Ollama vs ServerlessLLM
Ollama has 181,161 GitHub stars, 17,917 forks, 3,957 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ServerlessLLM has 715 stars, 76 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Ollama leads on adoption by 25,237% (181,161 vs 715 stars). Ollama is written in Go under MIT; ServerlessLLM is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Ollama has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, ServerlessLLM 11%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Ollama | ServerlessLLM | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 181K | ★ 715 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 18K | ⑂ 76 |
| 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 ServerlessLLM if
- You want the ServerlessLLM 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 ServerlessLLM 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 ServerlessLLM
ServerlessLLM is an Apache 2.0, Python based system for running many large language models on shared GPUs, aimed at teams that want serverless style multi model serving without provisioning a separate GPU for every model.
read the full ServerlessLLM 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 ServerlessLLM more popular?
Ollama has 181,161 GitHub stars and ServerlessLLM has 715. Ollama has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ollama and ServerlessLLM free?
Both are open source. Ollama is licensed under MIT and ServerlessLLM under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ollama and ServerlessLLM?
Ollama is written in Go and ServerlessLLM 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 ServerlessLLM?
Choose Ollama if you want the larger community (181,161 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ServerlessLLM if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.