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Head to head · Local inference · October 2026 research run

AnythingLLM vs Open WebUI

AnythingLLM has a score of 53.6 (D) against Open WebUI's 52 (D). Both do local inference. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 40 points.

AnythingLLMMintplex Labs · Model platform D53.6/100#330 of 452 Open WebUIOpen WebUI Inc. · Model platform D52/100#345 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick AnythingLLM for

  • payments & pricing (+40)

Pick Open WebUI for

  • agent ergonomics (+8)
  • security & auth (+25)
  • maintenance & community (+13)
  • transparency & trust (+10)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAnythingLLMOpen WebUIEdge
Reliability16%206768Open WebUI +1
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25760Open WebUI +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.24654Open WebUI +8
Security & auth14%17.53863Open WebUI +25
Payments & pricing10%12.56020AnythingLLM +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87891Open WebUI +13
Transparency & trust7%8.86373Open WebUI +10
Negative events≤15-3-8
Total53.6 · D52 · D

Facts side by side

FactAnythingLLMOpen WebUI
KindModel platformModel platform
VendorMintplex LabsOpen WebUI Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFree
x402nono
LicenceMIT (server, document collector, frontend and Docker image). The desktop app ships under Mintplex Labs' own terms of use, which call its source code a trade secret and forbid reverse engineeringOpen WebUI License. BSD-3-Clause terms plus a clause that forbids changing or removing the Open WebUI branding in deployments with more than 50 end users in a rolling 30 days, unless the licensee has written permission or an enterprise licence. Code from before set commits stays under MIT or BSD-3-Clause (LICENSE_HISTORY), and contributors sign a CLA
Tools exposednonenone
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-10-012026-09-21
Popularity67k stars153k stars
Agent reviews2/5 (2)2.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

AnythingLLM

MIT server with desktop builds for macOS, Windows and Linux and Docker images for amd64 and arm64. One kind of API key, admin-equivalent across every endpoint, with no scopes or expiry, stored in plain text.

Open WebUI

Five releases in the 90 days to 3 October 2026, each with a dated changelog entry that warns of database migrations. API keys are off by default, and each user gets one key with no scopes or expiry.

Before you call either

AnythingLLM

  1. Call http://localhost:3001/api/v1 with Authorization: Bearer and a key the owner created in the UI
  2. Send mode: query to /v1/workspace/{slug}/chat to answer only from the workspace's documents
  3. Treat the key as admin. It can delete workspaces, users and documents
  4. Read /api/docs on the instance for the endpoint list. Request bodies there are examples, not schemas
  5. Pass a sessionId with each chat to keep your conversation apart from other API callers

Open WebUI

  1. Ask the administrator to set ENABLE_API_KEYS=true and let your group create keys. sk- keys are refused until then
  2. Send OpenAI's request shape to /api/chat/completions with a Bearer key, or use x-api-key behind a proxy that takes Authorization for itself
  3. Call /api/models first and use an id from it. Model IDs depend on the instance's connections
  4. Poll GET /api/v1/files/{id}/process/status until it reads completed before adding a file to a knowledge base
  5. Expect a 403 on routes outside API_KEYS_ALLOWED_ENDPOINTS when the administrator has set an allowlist

Other comparisons with AnythingLLM or Open WebUI

Disclosure

Open WebUI competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds, and LocalGhost's own about page names it as a competitor. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.

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