head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs maid
Open WebUI has 152,426 GitHub stars, 22,301 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. maid has 2,693 stars, 289 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 5,560% (152,426 vs 2,693 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; maid is written in TypeScript under MIT. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, maid 11%. 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 (ollama, openai), 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 | maid | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 152K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 22K | ⑂ 289 |
| 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 maid if
- You want the maid feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and maid 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 maid
Maid is a free, MIT licensed Android application built with React Native that runs GGUF language models entirely on device through llama.cpp and connects to remote providers such as Anthropic, DeepSeek, Ollama, Mistral and OpenAI using the user's own API keys.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or maid more popular?
Open WebUI has 152,426 GitHub stars and maid has 2,693. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and maid free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and maid is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and maid?
Open WebUI is written in Python and maid 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 maid?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (152,426 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose maid if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.