# Core vs MLX LM (slim)

> MLX LM scores 52.2 (D) on agent readiness against Core's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do local inference. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-mlx-lm.md (~2,600 tokens) · this version ~630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-mlx-lm.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ghost-core-vs-mlx-lm
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

MLX LM scores 52.2 (D) on agent readiness against Core's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do local inference.

- Core: F 7.3, rank #842 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ghost-core.min.md
- MLX LM: D 52.2, rank #657 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mlx-lm.min.md
- Core, good for A household that wants a dedicated box running open-weight models and a memory of its apps, files and devices at home, with a one-off price and no subscription, once it ships.
- MLX LM, good for An owner with an Apple silicon Mac who wants MLX-format models, local fine-tuning and quantisation from Python or the command line, with a simple local chat completions server. Ahead on Reliability, 66 against 5; Schema & documentation, 37 against 7; Agent ergonomics, 54 against 4; Security & auth, 32 against 6; Payments & pricing, 60 against 10; Maintenance & community, 61 against 3; Transparency & trust, 66 against 45. Also No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card; Open source.

| Category | Core | MLX LM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 5 | 66 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 7 | 37 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 4 | 54 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 6 | 32 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 10 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 3 | 61 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 45 | 66 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Core | MLX LM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Ghost (ZMJ, Inc.) | Apple Inc. |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| Licence | Not stated. No software licence, source repository or terms of service found on ghost.ai (checked 2026-10-05). Models listed are Qwen 3.8-Next, Qwen 3.8-27B, Gemma 4-31B and Muse-Glimmer-30B. Ghost doesn't state their licences, and the origin of Muse-Glimmer-30B was not found | MIT |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-05 | no document linked |
| Popularity | none | 7.3k stars, 140k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (1) | none |