head to head · open source
RWKV-Runner vs optillm
RWKV-Runner has 6,500 GitHub stars, 594 forks, 178 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. optillm has 4,335 stars, 398 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. RWKV-Runner leads on adoption by 50% (6,500 vs 4,335 stars). RWKV-Runner is written in TypeScript under MIT; optillm is written in Python under Apache-2.0. RWKV-Runner has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, optillm 9%. RWKV-Runner was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (llm), 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
| RWKV-Runner | optillm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.5K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 594 | ⑂ 398 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick RWKV-Runner if
- You weight community size — 6.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick optillm if
- You want the optillm 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 optillm fits your workflow better
About RWKV-Runner
RWKV Runner This project aims to eliminate the barriers of using large language models by automating everything for you. All you need is a lightweight executable program of just a few megabytes. Additionally, this project provides an interface compatible with the OpenAI API, which means that every ChatGPT client is an RWKV client. [![license][license image]][license url] [![release][release image]][release url] [![py version][py version image]][py version url] English 简体中文 日本語 Install [![Windows][Windows image]][Windows url] [![MacOS][MacOS image]][MacOS url] [![Linux][Linux image]][Linux url] FAQs Preview…
read the full RWKV-Runner overview →
About optillm
OptiLLM 🚀 2 10x accuracy improvements on reasoning tasks with zero training 🤗 HuggingFace Space • 📓 Colab Demo • 💬 Discussions OptiLLM is an OpenAI API compatible optimizing inference proxy that implements 20+ state of the art techniques to dramatically improve LLM accuracy and performance on reasoning tasks without requiring any model training or fine tuning. It is possible to beat the frontier models using these techniques across diverse tasks by doing additional compute at inference time. A good example of how to combine such techniques together is the CePO approach from Cerebras. ✨ Key Features 🎯…
read the full optillm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is RWKV-Runner or optillm more popular?
RWKV-Runner has 6,500 GitHub stars and optillm has 4,335. RWKV-Runner has the larger community by that measure.
Are RWKV-Runner and optillm free?
Both are open source. RWKV-Runner is licensed under MIT and optillm under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between RWKV-Runner and optillm?
RWKV-Runner is written in TypeScript and optillm 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, RWKV-Runner or optillm?
Choose RWKV-Runner if you want the larger community (6,500 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose optillm if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.