# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-open-webui
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-open-webui.md (~1,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-open-webui.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-open-webui.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

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.

- AnythingLLM: grade D, 53.6/100, rank #330 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/anythingllm.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/anythingllm.json
- Open WebUI: grade D, 52/100, rank #345 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/open-webui.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/open-webui.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | AnythingLLM | Open WebUI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 68 | Open WebUI +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 60 | Open WebUI +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 46 | 54 | Open WebUI +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 63 | Open WebUI +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | AnythingLLM +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 91 | Open WebUI +13 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 73 | Open WebUI +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -8 | |
| **Total** | | **53.6 · D** | **52 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AnythingLLM | Open WebUI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | Model platform |
| Vendor | Mintplex Labs | Open WebUI Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (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 engineering | Open 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 exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-21 |
| Popularity | 67k stars | 153k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (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

- [AnythingLLM vs GPT4All](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-gpt4all.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs Jan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-jan.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-khoj.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-localai.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-ollama.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [GPT4All vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Jan vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Khoj vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-open-webui.md)
- [llama.cpp vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-open-webui.md)
- [LM Studio vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-open-webui.md)
- [LocalAI vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Ollama vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Open WebUI vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/open-webui-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-underdog.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs LocalGhost](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-localghost.md)

## 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.