Ollama vs Text Generation WebUI: which one to choose in 2026?
Both are open source alternatives to OpenAI API. We compare license, tech stack and features to help you decide which fits your team best.
| Ollama | Text Generation WebUI | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Artificial Intelligence | Artificial Intelligence |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| GitHub stars | 99k | 42k |
| Tech stack | Go, Llama.cpp | Python, PyTorch |
| Replaces | OpenAI API | OpenAI API |
Ollama has more GitHub stars, which usually indicates a larger community (not necessarily that it's the best option for your use case).
Ollama
Run open source LLMs locally, an alternative to the OpenAI API.
Pros
- Your data never leaves your server
Things to consider
- Quality depends on the model and hardware available
Text Generation WebUI
Advanced interface for local text models, an alternative to the OpenAI API.
Pros
- Very flexible for experimenting with different model formats
Things to consider
- Requires a powerful GPU for the largest models
Key features
Ollama
- Download models with a single command
- API compatible with multiple clients
- GPU and CPU support
Text Generation WebUI
- Supports multiple backends (llama.cpp, ExLlama, Transformers)
- Community extensions
- OpenAI-compatible API