head to head · open source
vllm vs gpustack
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars, 22,335 forks, 7,953 open issues and last shipped yesterday. gpustack has 5,707 stars, 649 forks, 696 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vllm leads on adoption by 1,513% (92,028 vs 5,707 stars). vllm is written in Python under Apache-2.0; gpustack is written in Python under Apache-2.0. vllm has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, gpustack 11%. vllm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 6 topic tags (cuda, deepseek, inference, llama), 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 | gpustack | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 22K | ⑂ 649 |
| 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 gpustack if
- You want the gpustack 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 gpustack 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 gpustack
GPUStack is an open source GPU cluster manager that configures and orchestrates inference engines such as vLLM, SGLang, and TensorRT LLM and launches on demand SSH accessible GPU instances, built for development teams, IT organizations, and service providers that deliver AI model serving at scale.
read the full gpustack overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vllm or gpustack more popular?
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars and gpustack has 5,707. vllm has the larger community by that measure.
Are vllm and gpustack free?
Both are open source. vllm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gpustack under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vllm and gpustack?
vllm is written in Python and gpustack 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 gpustack?
Choose vllm if you want the larger community (92,028 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gpustack if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.