head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs Athena-Public
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars, 22,923 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Athena-Public has 620 stars, 84 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 25,315% (157,575 vs 620 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Athena-Public is written in Python under MIT. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Athena-Public 14%. Athena-Public was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai, 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
| Open WebUI | Athena-Public | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 158K | ★ 620 |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 84 |
| 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 Athena-Public if
- You want the Athena-Public feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Athena-Public 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 Athena-Public
Project Athena A local first agentic PKM that helps you make better decisions with your own context. Capture what you learn, retrieve it when relevant, and carry your context between models — a local first memory, reasoning, and governance layer for any LLM, across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and whatever you switch to next. Own the state. Rent the intelligence. Platforms forget. Athena doesn't. Most assistants remember you so they can agree with you faster. Athena remembers you so it can tell you when you're wrong. Quickstart · How It Works · Scheduled Tasks & Self RSI · llms.txt · Docs · FAQ · Safety ·…
read the full Athena-Public overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or Athena-Public more popular?
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars and Athena-Public has 620. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and Athena-Public free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and Athena-Public is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and Athena-Public?
Open WebUI is written in Python and Athena-Public 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, Open WebUI or Athena-Public?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (157,575 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Athena-Public if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.