head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs MaxKB
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars, 22,923 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MaxKB has 23,095 stars, 3,210 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 582% (157,575 vs 23,095 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; MaxKB is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, MaxKB 14%. MaxKB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (llm, ollama), 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 | MaxKB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 158K | ★ 23K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 3.2K |
| 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 MaxKB if
- You want the MaxKB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and MaxKB 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 MaxKB
Open source platform for building enterprise grade agents 强大易用的企业级智能体平台 [ 中文(简体) ] [ English ] MaxKB = Max Knowledge Brain, it is an open source platform for building enterprise grade agents. MaxKB integrates Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, supports robust workflows, and provides advanced MCP tool use capabilities. MaxKB is widely applied in scenarios such as intelligent customer service, corporate internal knowledge bases, academic research, and education. RAG Pipeline : Supports direct uploading of documents / automatic crawling of online documents, with features for automatic text splitting…
read the full MaxKB overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or MaxKB more popular?
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars and MaxKB has 23,095. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and MaxKB free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and MaxKB is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and MaxKB?
Open WebUI is written in Python and MaxKB 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 MaxKB?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (157,575 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose MaxKB if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.