head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs oterm
Open WebUI has 158,493 GitHub stars, 23,044 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. oterm has 2,447 stars, 141 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 6,377% (158,493 vs 2,447 stars). Open WebUI is written in Svelte under a custom or non-standard licence; oterm is written in Python under MIT. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, oterm 6%. Open WebUI was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (llm, mcp, 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 | oterm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 158K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Svelte | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-12 | 2026-11-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 141 |
| 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 Svelte
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick oterm if
- You want the oterm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and oterm 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 oterm
oterm The terminal client for Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic, and any pydantic ai supported provider. Install Full install methods, configuration, and usage: oterm Documentation . What's new See the CHANGELOG. License MIT License.
read the full oterm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or oterm more popular?
Open WebUI has 158,493 GitHub stars and oterm has 2,447. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and oterm free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and oterm is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and oterm?
Open WebUI is written in Svelte and oterm 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 oterm?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (158,493 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose oterm if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.