head to head · open source
vllm vs server
vllm has 92,202 GitHub stars, 22,428 forks, 7,953 open issues and last shipped today. server has 8,250 stars, 2,105 forks, 495 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vllm leads on adoption by 1,018% (92,202 vs 8,250 stars). vllm is written in Python under Apache-2.0; server is written in C++ under GPL-2.0. vllm has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, server 26%. vllm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| vllm | server | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 8.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 22K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vllm if
- You weight community size — 92K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick server if
- You want the server feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and server fits your workflow better
About vllm
vLLM is a high throughput, memory efficient Python library for LLM inference and serving, built for ML engineers and platform teams who need to run open weight models on their own hardware at production scale.
About server
MariaDB Server is a community developed, GPL 2.0 relational database server forked from MySQL by the original MySQL developers, aimed at teams that want MySQL compatibility with a sanely licensed, independently governed SQL server.
read the full server overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vllm or server more popular?
vllm has 92,202 GitHub stars and server has 8,250. vllm has the larger community by that measure.
Are vllm and server free?
Both are open source. vllm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and server under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vllm and server?
vllm is written in Python and server in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, vllm or server?
Choose vllm if you want the larger community (92,202 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose server if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.