head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs Risuai
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars, 22,923 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Risuai has 1,767 stars, 362 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 8,818% (157,575 vs 1,767 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Risuai is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, Risuai 20%. Open WebUI was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, llm, mcp), 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 | Risuai | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 158K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 362 |
| 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 Risuai if
- You want the Risuai feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Risuai 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 Risuai
Risuai Risuai, or Risu for short, is a cross platform AI chatting software / web application with powerful features such as multiple API support, assets in the chat, regex functions and much more. Screenshots [screenshot1]: [screenshot2]: [screenshot3]: [screenshot4]: Features Multiple API Supports : Supports OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, DeepInfra, Ooba, OpenRouter... and More! Emotion Images : Display the image of the current character, according to his/her expressions! Group Chats : Multiple characters in one chat. Plugins : Add your features and providers, and simply share. Regex Script : Modify model's output by…
read the full Risuai overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or Risuai more popular?
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars and Risuai has 1,767. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and Risuai free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and Risuai is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and Risuai?
Open WebUI is written in Python and Risuai 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 Risuai?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (157,575 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Risuai if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.