head to head · open source
serviette vs llama_index
serviette has 58,799 GitHub stars, 1,510 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. llama_index has 52,515 stars, 8,353 forks, 770 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. serviette leads on adoption by 12% (58,799 vs 52,515 stars). serviette is written in Python under MIT; llama_index is written in Python under MIT. serviette has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, llama_index 16%. serviette 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| serviette | llama_index | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 59K | ★ 53K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 8.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick serviette if
- You weight community size — 59K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick llama_index if
- You want the llama_index feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and llama_index fits your workflow better
About serviette
serviette is a no code, always up to date RAG server that turns a folder of documents into a chat interface and a REST API with cited answers, built for teams that want question answering over their own organisation's files without assembling or maintaining a retrieval pipeline.
read the full serviette overview →
About llama_index
LlamaIndex is an MIT licensed, open source Python framework for building agentic applications — retrieval augmented generation systems, agents and multi agent workflows — on top of private documents and data, and it is aimed at AI engineers and teams who need to connect large language models to their own sources of context.
read the full llama_index overview →
More in AI & Machine Learning
Related comparisons
More Machine Learning Infrastructure projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Machine Learning Infrastructure field.
Frequently asked questions
Is serviette or llama_index more popular?
serviette has 58,799 GitHub stars and llama_index has 52,515. serviette has the larger community by that measure.
Are serviette and llama_index free?
Both are open source. serviette is licensed under MIT and llama_index under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between serviette and llama_index?
serviette is written in Python and llama_index 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, serviette or llama_index?
Choose serviette if you want the larger community (58,799 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose llama_index if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.