head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs botman
Open WebUI has 152,426 GitHub stars, 22,301 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped today. botman has 6,160 stars, 812 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 2,374% (152,426 vs 6,160 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; botman is written in PHP under MIT. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, botman 13%. Open WebUI 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 | botman | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 152K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-04-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 22K | ⑂ 812 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Open WebUI if
- You weight community size — 152K 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 botman if
- You want the botman feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and botman fits your workflow better
About Open WebUI
Open WebUI is a self hosted, open source AI interface that unifies access to local and cloud based large language models. It runs entirely in a web browser and supports Ollama for local model hosting alongside any OpenAI compatible API, including services like LMStudio, GroqCloud, Mistral, and OpenRouter. Built in Python, it functions as a drop in replacement for proprietary AI platforms, giving users full control over their model infrastructure and data.
read the full Open WebUI overview →
About botman
BotMan is a framework agnostic PHP library for building chat bots that run across multiple messaging platforms from a single codebase, aimed at PHP developers and Laravel teams who want cross platform bot logic without writing separate integration code for every service.
read the full botman overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or botman more popular?
Open WebUI has 152,426 GitHub stars and botman has 6,160. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and botman free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and botman is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and botman?
Open WebUI is written in Python and botman in PHP. 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 botman?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (152,426 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose botman if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.