head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs HuixiangDou
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars, 22,923 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HuixiangDou has 2,499 stars, 181 forks, 37 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 6,206% (157,575 vs 2,499 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; HuixiangDou is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, HuixiangDou 7%. Open WebUI was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (llm, rag), 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 | HuixiangDou | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 158K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2025-11-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 181 |
| 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 HuixiangDou if
- You want the HuixiangDou feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and HuixiangDou 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 HuixiangDou
🎚️ Upgrade HuixiangDou2(ACL25) is a GraphRAG solution whose effectiveness has been demonstrated in the plant science domain and that contributed to the cover paper in Cell X0008 8) Molecular Plant. If you work outside computer science, give the new release a try. English 简体中文 HuixiangDou1 is a professional knowledge assistant based on LLM. Advantages: 1. Design three stage pipelines of preprocess, rejection and response chat in group copes with group chat scenario, answer user questions without message flooding, see 2401.08772, 2405.02817, Hybrid Retrieval and Precision Report chat with repo for real time…
read the full HuixiangDou overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or HuixiangDou more popular?
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars and HuixiangDou has 2,499. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and HuixiangDou free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and HuixiangDou is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and HuixiangDou?
Open WebUI is written in Python and HuixiangDou 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 HuixiangDou?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (157,575 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose HuixiangDou if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.