head to head · open source
vllm vs chitu
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars, 22,335 forks, 7,953 open issues and last shipped yesterday. chitu has 3,001 stars, 259 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vllm leads on adoption by 2,967% (92,028 vs 3,001 stars). vllm is written in Python under Apache-2.0; chitu is written in Python under Apache-2.0. vllm has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, chitu 9%. vllm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (deepseek, llm, llm-serving), 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
| vllm | chitu | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 3.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 22K | ⑂ 259 |
| 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 chitu if
- You want the chitu 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 chitu 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 chitu
Chitu is an open source Python inference framework for large language models. It lives in the PyTorch GPU model serving ecosystem, with topics including deepseek, llm serving, model serving, and pytorch, and it is Apache 2.0 licensed. The project describes itself as a high performance engine focused on efficiency, flexibility, and availability for production deployment.
read the full chitu overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vllm or chitu more popular?
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars and chitu has 3,001. vllm has the larger community by that measure.
Are vllm and chitu free?
Both are open source. vllm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and chitu under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vllm and chitu?
vllm is written in Python and chitu 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, vllm or chitu?
Choose vllm if you want the larger community (92,028 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose chitu if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.