head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs assistant-ui
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars, 22,923 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. assistant-ui has 12,912 stars, 1,304 forks, 207 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 1,120% (157,575 vs 12,912 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; assistant-ui is written in TypeScript under MIT. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, assistant-ui 10%. assistant-ui 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.
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Side by side
| Open WebUI | assistant-ui | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 158K | ★ 13K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Open WebUI if
- You weight community size — 158K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick assistant-ui if
- You want the assistant-ui feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and assistant-ui fits your workflow better
About Open WebUI
Open WebUI 👋 Open WebUI is a home for AI , a self hosted AI platform that's extensible , feature rich , user friendly, and built to run entirely offline . With support for Ollama and OpenAI compatible APIs , it gives you a powerful, provider agnostic interface for both local and cloud based models. Passionate about open source AI? Join our team → [!TIP] Looking for an Enterprise Plan? – Speak with Our Sales Team Today! For more information, be sure to check out our Open WebUI Documentation. Key Features of Open WebUI ⭐ 🚀 Effortless Setup : Install seamlessly via pip, uv, Docker, or Kubernetes (kubectl…
read the full Open WebUI overview →
About assistant-ui
Product · Documentation · Examples · Discord · Contact Sales The UX of ChatGPT in your React app 💬🚀 assistant ui is an open source TypeScript/React library to build production grade AI chat experiences fast. Installation The fastest path is the CLI, which scaffolds a Next.js app or adds the styled components to an existing project: Or install the packages directly: Usage useChatRuntime connects to the Vercel AI SDK out of the box. Swap it for useLangGraphRuntime , useDataStreamRuntime , or any custom runtime to integrate with your own backend. What you get Composable primitives : build any chat UX from Thread…
read the full assistant-ui overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or assistant-ui more popular?
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars and assistant-ui has 12,912. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and assistant-ui free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and assistant-ui is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and assistant-ui?
Open WebUI is written in Python and assistant-ui in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Open WebUI or assistant-ui?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (157,575 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose assistant-ui if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.