# Berth vs Open WebUI

> Berth scores 67.6 (B) to Open WebUI's 52 (D) for local inference. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-open-webui
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-open-webui.md (~2,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-vs-open-webui.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-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
- 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 Open WebUI's 52 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Open WebUI leads on security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. 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
- Open WebUI: grade D, 52/100, rank #879 of 1218. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/open-webui.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/open-webui.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 68
- Schema & documentation, 69 against 60
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 54
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where Open WebUI loses 8 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

### Open WebUI (D)

Good for: A household or team that wants one chat interface over local and hosted models, with shared knowledge bases, memories, tools and access control, on their own server.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 63 against 51
- Maintenance & community, 91 against 76
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 68

Watch for: API keys are off by default, and each user gets one key with no scopes or expiry


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Berth | Open WebUI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 76 | 68 | Berth +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 60 | Berth +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 54 | Berth +21 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 51 | 63 | Open WebUI +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Berth +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 91 | Open WebUI +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 73 | Open WebUI +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -8 | |
| **Total** | | **67.6 · B** | **52 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Berth | Open WebUI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Platform |
| Vendor | Trevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub) | Open WebUI Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| 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 | 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 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-23 | 2026-09-21 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-07-07 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-12-31 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 245 stars | 153k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (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.

**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

### 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

### 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

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Berth or Open WebUI?

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Open WebUI's 52 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Open WebUI leads on security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call Berth and Open WebUI without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Berth. No hosted endpoint is listed for Open WebUI.

### Are Berth and Open WebUI 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 Open WebUI.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Berth or Open WebUI

- [AnythingLLM vs Berth](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-berth.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Berth vs BitRun](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/berth-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 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 Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitrun-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Docker Model Runner vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-model-runner-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Foundry Local vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/foundry-local-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Core vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-open-webui.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)
- [KoboldCpp vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/koboldcpp-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Lemonade vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lemonade-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)
- [MLX LM vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mlx-lm-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)
- [Open WebUI vs TextGen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/open-webui-vs-text-generation-webui.md)
- [Open WebUI vs vLLM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/open-webui-vs-vllm.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.

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp