head to head · open source
vllm vs OpenLLM
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars, 22,335 forks, 7,953 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenLLM has 12,535 stars, 841 forks, 20 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. vllm leads on adoption by 634% (92,028 vs 12,535 stars). vllm is written in Python under Apache-2.0; OpenLLM is written in Python under Apache-2.0. vllm has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, OpenLLM 7%. vllm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (llama, 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 | OpenLLM | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 13K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 22K | ⑂ 841 |
| 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 OpenLLM if
- You want the OpenLLM 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 OpenLLM 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 OpenLLM
OpenLLM is an Apache 2.0 Python project from BentoML that runs open source or custom large language models as OpenAI compatible API endpoints on self hosted infrastructure, and it is aimed at developers and platform teams who want to serve Llama, Qwen, Mistral, DeepSeek and similar models in the cloud without rewriting their client code.
read the full OpenLLM overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vllm or OpenLLM more popular?
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars and OpenLLM has 12,535. vllm has the larger community by that measure.
Are vllm and OpenLLM free?
Both are open source. vllm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenLLM under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vllm and OpenLLM?
vllm is written in Python and OpenLLM 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 OpenLLM?
Choose vllm if you want the larger community (92,028 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenLLM if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.