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Head to head · Local inference · October 2026 research run

Berth vs LM Studio

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against LM Studio's 57.9 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. LM Studio leads on security & auth. Both do local inference.

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BerthTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub) · HTTP API B67.6/100#283 of 1218 LM StudioElement Labs, Inc. · HTTP API C57.9/100#683 of 1218

Which one, for what

Berth B

Best 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 34
  • Schema & documentation, 69 against 64
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 69
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 61

Also in its favour

  • Open source

Watch for

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

LM Studio C

Best for A machine that serves open models to several agents and tools at once, in whichever API shape each client already speaks, and for headless serving on Linux with llmster.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 59 against 51

Watch for

Authentication is off by default, so any local process can call the server

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBerthLM StudioEdge
Reliability16%207634Berth +42
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26964Berth +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.27569Berth +6
Security & auth14%17.55159LM Studio +8
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87672Berth +4
Transparency & trust7%8.86861Berth +7
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 67.6/100C 57.9/100

Facts side by side

FactBerthLM Studio
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub)Element Labs, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0. The Berth name, the Pilot mascot and the artwork in assets/ are excluded from the licence, per the NOTICE fileProprietary. The app and llmster are free for personal and internal business use under LM Studio's terms (Element Labs, Inc., effective 23 August 2026), with no source published. The lms CLI and the TypeScript and Python SDKs are MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-232026-09-19
Terms last updatedno document linkedno date given
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-06-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity245 stars69k npm/wk, 15k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (2)

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.

LM Studio

OpenAI-compatible chat completions, responses, completions and embeddings, Anthropic-compatible /v1/messages and a native /api/v1, all on one port. Authentication is off by default, so any local process can call the server.

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

LM Studio

  1. Send Authorization: Bearer $LM_API_TOKEN when the owner gives you a token. With Require Authentication on, every request needs it
  2. Pass previous_response_id to /api/v1/chat instead of resending the history, and store: false for one-off calls
  3. List models with GET /api/v1/models before naming one. A named model that's downloaded loads just in time
  4. Install the Python SDK pre-release (1.6.0b1) and pass api_token directly. It reads LMSTUDIO_API_TOKEN, not the LM_API_TOKEN the docs name
  5. Set allowed_tools on every MCP integration. Without it the model sees every tool on the server

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Berth or LM Studio?

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against LM Studio's 57.9 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. LM Studio leads on security & auth.

Do Berth and LM Studio need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Berth and LM Studio without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Berth. No hosted endpoint is listed for LM Studio.

Are Berth and LM Studio open source?

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). No open-source release is listed for LM Studio.

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