head to head · open source
vllm vs openlake
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars, 22,335 forks, 7,953 open issues and last shipped yesterday. openlake has 2,662 stars, 424 forks, 138 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. vllm leads on adoption by 3,357% (92,028 vs 2,662 stars). vllm is written in Python under Apache-2.0; openlake is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. vllm has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, openlake 16%. vllm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (blackwell, gpt, 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
| vllm | openlake | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 22K | ⑂ 424 |
| 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 openlake if
- You want the openlake feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and openlake 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 openlake
OpenLake is a Rust storage engine for AI and machine learning infrastructure, aimed at LLM inference and GPU training. It provides distributed storage for GPU workloads and uses io uring to keep accelerators fed during serving and training.
read the full openlake overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vllm or openlake more popular?
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars and openlake has 2,662. vllm has the larger community by that measure.
Are vllm and openlake free?
Both are open source. vllm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and openlake under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vllm and openlake?
vllm is written in Python and openlake in Rust. 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 openlake?
Choose vllm if you want the larger community (92,028 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose openlake if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.