head to head · open source
Open WebUI vs row-bot
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars, 22,923 forks, 294 open issues and last shipped yesterday. row-bot has 1,684 stars, 201 forks, 30 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Open WebUI leads on adoption by 9,257% (157,575 vs 1,684 stars). Open WebUI is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; row-bot is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Open WebUI has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, row-bot 12%. Open WebUI was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | row-bot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 158K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 23K | ⑂ 201 |
| 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 row-bot if
- You want the row-bot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and row-bot 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 row-bot
Row Bot (formerly Thoth) Row Bot is a local first desktop AI assistant for doing real work with models, memory and tools. You talk to it in conversations; it remembers what matters in a local knowledge graph, works in the files, code folders, designs, workflows and channels you give it, delegates to focused agents, and asks before anything risky. It runs local models through Ollama, provider API keys, ChatGPT, Claude or Grok subscriptions, or any OpenAI compatible endpoint, and keeps your data on your machine. One React app serves the desktop window, browsers, phones and server mode. Features Conversations that…
read the full row-bot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Open WebUI or row-bot more popular?
Open WebUI has 157,575 GitHub stars and row-bot has 1,684. Open WebUI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Open WebUI and row-bot free?
Both are open source. Open WebUI has no licence declared in this registry, and row-bot is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Open WebUI and row-bot?
Open WebUI is written in Python and row-bot 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 row-bot?
Choose Open WebUI if you want the larger community (157,575 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose row-bot if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.