head to head · open source
vllm vs OpenLLMetry
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars, 22,335 forks, 7,953 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenLLMetry has 7,438 stars, 1,083 forks, 676 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vllm leads on adoption by 1,137% (92,028 vs 7,438 stars). vllm is written in Python under Apache-2.0; OpenLLMetry is written in Python under Apache-2.0. vllm has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, OpenLLMetry 15%. vllm 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.
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Side by side
| vllm | OpenLLMetry | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 22K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 OpenLLMetry if
- You want the OpenLLMetry 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 OpenLLMetry 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 OpenLLMetry
OpenLLMetry is an Apache 2.0 set of OpenTelemetry based extensions, built and maintained by Traceloop, that gives complete observability over Python GenAI and LLM applications, and it is aimed at teams already running LLM workloads that need tracing, metrics, and model monitoring without adopting a proprietary agent.
read the full OpenLLMetry overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vllm or OpenLLMetry more popular?
vllm has 92,028 GitHub stars and OpenLLMetry has 7,438. vllm has the larger community by that measure.
Are vllm and OpenLLMetry free?
Both are open source. vllm is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenLLMetry under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vllm and OpenLLMetry?
vllm is written in Python and OpenLLMetry 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 OpenLLMetry?
Choose vllm if you want the larger community (92,028 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose OpenLLMetry if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.