Ollama vs Open-WebUI

Two self-hosted Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) apps, compared on the facts we track: GitHub popularity and activity, license, language, Docker images and a rough hosting estimate.

Side by side

OllamaOpen-WebUI
DescriptionGet up and running with Llama 3.3, DeepSeek-R1, Phi-4, Gemma 3, and other large language models.User-friendly AI Interface, supports Ollama, OpenAI API.
GitHub stars185,960157,822
Forks18.9k22.9k
Open issues (incl. PRs)4.6k186
Commits (12 months)1.1k5.9k
Last activity2026-11-052026-11-03
Latest releasev0.40.15-rc0 (2026-11-03)v0.13.0 (2026-11-03)
Maintenance healthActiveActive
LicenseMITBSD-3-Clause
Language / platformDocker, PythonDocker, Python
Docker Hub image––
Docker pulls––
Est. server size~8 GB, 4 vCPU~8 GB, 4 vCPU
Est. hosting from$40/mo$40/mo
CategoriesGenerative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)
LinksWebsite · SourceWebsite · Source

What the numbers say

Summary: Open-WebUI leads on commit activity. The right choice depends on the features you need — read both project descriptions and docs.

This summary is generated from GitHub, Docker Hub and awesome-selfhosted data as of 2026-11-05. It does not rate features or quality.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ollama or Open-WebUI more popular?

They are close: Ollama has 185,960 GitHub stars and Open-WebUI has 157,822 (as of 2026-11-05).

Which is more actively maintained, Ollama or Open-WebUI?

Open-WebUI had more commits over the last 12 months (5,863 vs 1,139). The last recorded activity was 2026-11-05 for Ollama and 2026-11-03 for Open-WebUI. Our health labels: Ollama is “Active”, Open-WebUI is “Active”.

What licenses do Ollama and Open-WebUI use?

Ollama: MIT. Open-WebUI: BSD-3-Clause.

Can I run Ollama and Open-WebUI with Docker?

We did not detect a Docker Hub image for either app. The upstream listing mentions Docker as a deployment option for Ollama and Open-WebUI. Check each project's documentation for install options.

Read more

Ollama

Get up and running with Llama 3.3, DeepSeek-R1, Phi-4, Gemma 3, and other large language models.

Active ★ 186k MIT 🐳 Docker~$40/mo

Open-WebUI

User-friendly AI Interface, supports Ollama, OpenAI API.

Active ★ 157.8k BSD-3-Clause 🐳 Docker~$40/mo

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