# Berth vs BitRun

> Berth scores 67.6 (B) to BitRun's 38.3 (E) for local inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-bitrun
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-bitrun.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-bitrun.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-bitrun.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-28

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against BitRun's 38.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do local inference.

- Berth: grade B, 67.6/100, rank #283 of 1218. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/berth.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/berth.json
- BitRun: grade E, 38.3/100, rank #1111 of 1218. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bitrun.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bitrun.json
- Best local AI models and assistants: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/local-ai/index.md
- All 229 local ai comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/local-ai/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Berth (B)

Good for: Someone running several GPU programs (llama.cpp, llama-swap, Ollama, vLLM, ComfyUI, games) on one NVIDIA card who wants them to take turns, and agents that need to ask for the card.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 76 against 38
- Schema & documentation, 69 against 30
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 40
- Security & auth, 51 against 28
- Maintenance & community, 76 against 59
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 54

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where BitRun loses 3 points for them

Watch for: First released on 11 October 2026 and called alpha. Windows, AMD and multiple GPUs are experimental, and the gateway is a preview

### BitRun (E)

Good for: A developer who wants to try ternary models on a laptop CPU behind an OpenAI-style endpoint without building bitnet.cpp.

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

Watch for: First released on 12 October 2026. Three pre-release versions in four days, one maintainer and no CI workflow


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Berth | BitRun | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 76 | 38 | Berth +38 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 30 | Berth +39 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 40 | Berth +35 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 51 | 28 | Berth +23 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 59 | Berth +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 54 | Berth +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **67.6 · B** | **38.3 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Berth | BitRun |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Trevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub) | Abhishek Khanra (IshekKhal on GitHub) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0. The Berth name, the Pilot mascot and the artwork in assets/ are excluded from the licence, per the NOTICE file | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-23 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 245 stars | 5 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Berth.** Berth coordinates one NVIDIA card between engines, ComfyUI and games, grants a lease only after the driver shows memory free, and gives agents a skill, JSON output and a keyed loopback gateway. It is 17 days old, alpha and maintained by one developer, with Windows and AMD experimental and no machine-readable API spec.

**BitRun.** BitRun packages patched llama.cpp builds for ternary models into one download for macOS on Apple silicon, Windows and Linux, with a loopback-only OpenAI-compatible server. It is three days old with three pre-release versions, one maintainer and no CI, and its published power figures come from a fixed formula rather than measurement.

## Before you call either

### Berth

1. Run `berth status --format json` before starting, stopping or switching any GPU engine. If berthd is unreachable, no engine is protected
2. Never kill a process to free VRAM. Ask for the card with `berth run`, `berth hold` or a gateway request, and report stowaways to the user
3. Send gateway requests to http://127.0.0.1:9799/v1 with `Authorization: Bearer $(berth key)`, and use `"stream": true` for cold starts of up to minutes
4. On a 503, read the `code` and wait for `Retry-After`. A pinned holder (a game or `berth hold`) answers 409 to stop and is the user's call
5. Ask the user before `berth reclaim LEASE --yes`, any berth.toml edit or `berth update`. Each changes the node

### BitRun

1. Ask the user to install BitRun and run `bitrun pull <tag>` and `bitrun serve <tag>` first. Then call http://127.0.0.1:11435/v1 with any API key string
2. Poll `/health` before the first request. The server loads the model in the background and answers only when ready
3. Use a model tag from the catalogue (bitnet-70m, bonsai-1.7b, falcon3-1b, bitnet-2b, falcon3-3b, bonsai-8b) and keep prompts within its context window
4. Treat the README's energy figures as estimates, and don't report them as measured power
5. Expect small research checkpoints. Check outputs before relying on them for code or facts

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Berth or BitRun?

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against BitRun's 38.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Berth and BitRun need an API key?

Berth needs an API key. BitRun needs no key.

### Can an agent call Berth and BitRun without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Berth. No hosted endpoint is listed for BitRun.

### Are Berth and BitRun open source?

Yes. Berth is open source (Apache-2.0. The Berth name, the Pilot mascot and the artwork in assets/ are excluded from the licence, per the NOTICE file). BitRun is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-bitrun.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-bitrun.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "berth", "b": "bitrun"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare berth bitrun`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/berth.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bitrun.json

## Other comparisons with Berth or BitRun

- [AnythingLLM vs Berth](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-berth.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs BitRun](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-bitrun.md)
- [Berth vs Docker Model Runner](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-docker-model-runner.md)
- [Berth vs Foundry Local](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-foundry-local.md)
- [Berth vs Core](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-ghost-core.md)
- [Berth vs GPT4All](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-gpt4all.md)
- [Berth vs Jan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-jan.md)
- [Berth vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-khoj.md)
- [Berth vs KoboldCpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-koboldcpp.md)
- [Berth vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-lemonade.md)
- [Berth vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [Berth vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [Berth vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-localai.md)
- [Berth vs MLX LM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-mlx-lm.md)
- [Berth vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-ollama.md)
- [Berth vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Berth vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [Berth vs TextGen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-text-generation-webui.md)
- [Berth vs vLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-vllm.md)
- [BitRun vs Docker Model Runner](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-docker-model-runner.md)
- [BitRun vs Foundry Local](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-foundry-local.md)
- [BitRun vs Core](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-ghost-core.md)
- [BitRun vs GPT4All](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-gpt4all.md)
- [BitRun vs Jan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-jan.md)
- [BitRun vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-khoj.md)
- [BitRun vs KoboldCpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-koboldcpp.md)
- [BitRun vs Lemonade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-lemonade.md)
- [BitRun vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [BitRun vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [BitRun vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-localai.md)
- [BitRun vs MLX LM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-mlx-lm.md)
- [BitRun vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-ollama.md)
- [BitRun vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-open-webui.md)
- [BitRun vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [BitRun vs TextGen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-text-generation-webui.md)
- [BitRun vs vLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-vllm.md)
- [BitRun vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-underdog.md)

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