{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "localai", "name": "LocalAI", "vendor": "Ettore Di Giacinto and the LocalAI team", "vendorUrl": "https://localai.io", "kind": "http-api", "category": "local-ai", "summary": "Open-source engine in Go, MIT licensed, that runs models on the owner's hardware behind OpenAI-, Anthropic-, Ollama- and ElevenLabs-compatible APIs on port 8080.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/localai", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/localai.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/localai.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/localai.json", "repo": "https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI", "license": "MIT. Each backend image wraps an upstream engine (llama.cpp, vLLM, whisper.cpp, diffusers and others) under that engine's own licence", "transports": [ "http", "stdio" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "oci", "name": "docker.io/localai/localai" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Off by default. With no keys and no user accounts configured, every request is accepted, and the server refuses to start on a public address in that state unless `--allow-insecure-public-bind` is set. `LOCALAI_API_KEY` sets shared keys with full admin rights. `LOCALAI_AUTH=true` turns on user accounts (local, GitHub OAuth or OIDC), and each user creates revocable keys stored as HMAC-SHA256, with an optional expiry in the source, carrying the user's role (admin or user) and per-model and per-feature permissions. Keys go in `Authorization: Bearer`, `x-api-key`, `xi-api-key` or a `token` cookie.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free and MIT with nothing to buy. You run it on your own hardware. The project takes sponsorship through GitHub Sponsors.", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs or the source (checked 2026-10-03).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 42, "popularity": { "githubStars": 47800, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-03" }, "docsUrl": "https://localai.io/basics/getting_started/", "openapi": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mudler/LocalAI/master/swagger/swagger.json", "capabilities": [ "inference.local", "inference.open-weights", "agent.mcp-client", "embed.text", "rerank", "speech.stt", "speech.tts", "voice.speech-to-speech", "image.generate", "video.generate", "guard.pii", "finetune.sft", "db.vector" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "local", "self-hosted", "free", "no-card", "openai-compatible", "openapi", "mcp", "go", "docker", "streaming", "open-weights", "no-telemetry" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-02", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 68, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 133, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 452, "categoryRank": 1, "methodology": "0.3", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 71, "maintenance": 80, "payments": 60, "reliability": 84, "schema": 81, "security": 62, "transparency": 47 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-03" }, "negative": -3, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-07-07. CVE-2026-59707 (8.6 at NVD under CVSS 3.1, published by VulnCheck), an unauthenticated server-side request forgery through POST /models/apply in v4.3.1 and earlier, reported in issue #10665. The code now refuses private, loopback and metadata addresses in gallery config fetches, with a comment citing the issue, from v4.8.0 at the latest. The project published no GitHub advisory, the fix commit NVD and VulnCheck name (f9b968e) is an unrelated docs change, and SECURITY.md still lists 3.x as the supported series. Fixed, documented only by a third party, -3. https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-59707; https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/issues/10665" ], "verdict": "MIT and Go, with Docker images for CUDA 12 and 13, ROCm, Intel oneAPI, Vulkan, Jetson and CPU, Linux binaries and a macOS app. No authentication by default. Loopback, LAN and VPN binds answer every caller, and keys set by environment variable grant full admin.", "strengths": [ "MIT and Go, with Docker images for CUDA 12 and 13, ROCm, Intel oneAPI, Vulkan, Jetson and CPU, Linux binaries and a macOS app", "OpenAI, Anthropic, Open Responses, Ollama and ElevenLabs-compatible endpoints, with a Swagger 2.0 file of 133 operations served by every instance", "429 and 503 responses carry Retry-After, and errors come in the calling client's own envelope", "Optional user accounts with hashed, revocable keys, per-model and per-feature permissions and per-user quotas", "v4.11.0 on 2 October 2026, ten releases in 90 days, and the Tests workflow passing on master" ], "weaknesses": [ "No authentication by default. Loopback, LAN and VPN binds answer every caller, and keys set by environment variable grant full admin", "CVE-2026-59707, an unauthenticated SSRF in v4.3.1 and earlier, published by VulnCheck in July 2026 with no advisory from the project", "SECURITY.md still names 3.x as the supported series, and there's no security.txt or privacy policy", "The MCP admin server registers 42 tools against the 19 its docs list, with no annotations, and its writes are held back only by a prompt", "No breaking-change section in the release notes, and the unsigned macOS DMG needs its quarantine flag removed by hand" ], "agentNotes": [ "Send `Authorization: Bearer \u003ckey\u003e` when the operator has set keys. A 401 means the instance has auth on", "Read /.well-known/localai.json and /api/instructions first. Both answer without a key and list what this instance can do", "Back off on 429 and 503 for the Retry-After seconds. A 503 can mean the model is still loading", "Start `local-ai mcp-server` with `--read-only` unless the task is to install or delete models", "Take model names from /v1/models. Each instance names its own" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 3, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.3", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 68 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 71, "maintenance": 80, "payments": 60, "reliability": 84, "schema": 81, "security": 62, "transparency": 67 }, "provenanceScore": 27 }, "connect": { "install": "docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 localai/localai:latest", "http": "curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" -d '{\n \"model\": \"qwen3-4b\",\n \"messages\": [{\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": \"Hello!\"}]\n}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.local", "tool": "https://letme.dev/localai" }, "area": "models", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "", "domain": "localai.io", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/releases", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-03", "notes": [ "No company is named. The `LICENSE` copyright line reads Ettore Di Giacinto, and the README names him as project lead with Richard Palethorpe as maintainer.", "We found no terms or privacy page in the docs site's source, and localai.io/.well-known/security.txt and localai.io/llms.txt return 404.", "There's no hosted endpoint. Each instance answers on the operator's own host, by default port 8080." ], "score": 27 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/localai.json", "live": { "slug": "localai", "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "mudler/LocalAI", "version": "v4.11.0", "released": "2026-10-02", "seenAt": "2026-10-04T16:32:02.572449913Z" } ], "githubStars": 49385, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://localai.io/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:15:42.873292356Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "localai.io", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:07:02.946116654Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-04T16:32:02.572449913Z" } }, "b": { "slug": "open-webui", "name": "Open WebUI", "vendor": "Open WebUI Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://openwebui.com", "kind": "platform", "category": "local-ai", "summary": "Self-hosted web interface for chatting with models, from Open WebUI Inc., with a Python (FastAPI) back end and a Svelte front end.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/open-webui", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/open-webui.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/open-webui.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/open-webui.json", "repo": "https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui", "license": "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", "transports": [ "http" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "open-webui" }, { "registry": "oci", "name": "ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "Sign-in is on by default (`WEBUI_AUTH`), the first account to sign up becomes admin, and sign-up then closes. An agent calls the API with `Authorization: Bearer \u003ctoken\u003e`, either an `sk-` API key from Settings \u003e Account or a session JWT, which lasts four weeks by default (`JWT_EXPIRES_IN`), and behind a reverse proxy that uses `Authorization` itself the key can go in an `x-api-key` header (https://docs.openwebui.com/reference/api-endpoints). API keys stay off until an administrator turns them on (`ENABLE_API_KEYS` defaults to false), a group permission decides who may create one, and they can be limited instance-wide to listed endpoints with `ENABLE_API_KEYS_ENDPOINT_RESTRICTIONS` and `API_KEYS_ALLOWED_ENDPOINTS` (https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/backend/open_webui/config.py). Each user has one key, `sk-` plus 32 hexadecimal characters, stored as plain text with a last-used time and no expiry set by the API (https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/backend/open_webui/routers/auths.py). People sign in with email and password, OAuth or OIDC, LDAP or trusted headers, with SCIM 2.0 provisioning.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free to self-host under the Open WebUI License. Deployments with more than 50 end users in a rolling 30 days have to keep the Open WebUI branding unless they hold an enterprise licence or written permission. The enterprise licence (white-labelling, SLA-backed support, Terminals) is sold through sales to registered organisations only, with no published prices (https://docs.openwebui.com/enterprise). There's no hosted Open WebUI service. You pay your model provider, or nothing with a local model (checked 2026-10-03).", "priceSummary": "Free", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs or the source (checked 2026-10-03).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 153000, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-03" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.openwebui.com", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.openwebui.com/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "inference.local", "agent.mcp-client", "memory.user", "knowledge.search" ], "tags": [ "self-hosted", "local", "free", "python", "docker", "openai-compatible", "llms-txt", "enterprise" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-21", "graded": true, "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.", "competesWith": "localghost", "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 52, "grade": "D", "agentReady": false, "rank": 345, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 452, "categoryRank": 7, "methodology": "0.3", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 54, "maintenance": 91, "payments": 20, "reliability": 68, "schema": 60, "security": 63, "transparency": 73 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-03" }, "negative": -8, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-05-05. GHSA-2r4p-jpmg-48f4 (CVE-2026-44551, Critical, 9.1). LDAP sign-in accepted an empty password where the directory allows unauthenticated binds, giving full access to the victim's account. It affects 0.8.12 and earlier and was fixed in 0.9.0 (21 April 2026) before publication, -2. https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-2r4p-jpmg-48f4", "2026-07-02. GHSA-74h3-cxq7-vc5q (CVE-2026-59216, 7.7). A signed-in low-privilege user could run code and tools in another user's session through an unchecked Socket.IO session_id, which against an administrator meant code execution as the server process (root in default containers). Fixed in 0.10.0 on 29 June 2026 and published three days later, -2. https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-74h3-cxq7-vc5q", "2026-08-02 and 2026-09-04. Two account takeovers through OAuth, both High. GHSA-rq84-p6rr-vf89 accepted tokens issued to any client in the OAuth token exchange (fixed in 0.11.0), and GHSA-wpmr-8h3q-fwj7 (8.1) matched OAuth and OIDC subjects by substring on SQLite, so a crafted subject could sign in as an existing account, administrators included (fixed in 0.11.1 on 25 August). Both fixed before publication, -2. https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-rq84-p6rr-vf89; https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories/GHSA-wpmr-8h3q-fwj7", "2025-10-03 to 2026-10-03. The rest of the year's record. GitHub reviewed 143 of the repository's advisories in the 12 months to 3 October 2026, and 129 cover flaws fixed in releases from 0.6.35 (6 November 2025) on, 58 High and 1 Critical, more than half of them access-control or authorisation flaws by their titles and CWE tags. July to September alone brought 52 (18 High, 29 Moderate, 5 Low) in batches published on 2 July, 2 August and 4 September. Each was fixed in a release before publication, so the 125 beyond the four above count together, -2. https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/security/advisories; https://github.com/advisories?query=open-webui+type%3Areviewed+ecosystem%3Apip" ], "verdict": "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.", "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.", "strengths": [ "Five releases in the 90 days to 3 October 2026, each with a dated changelog entry that warns of database migrations", "OpenAI-compatible `/api/chat/completions` and `/api/models`, plus an Anthropic Messages route and an Ollama proxy, so OpenAI's SDKs work against a local instance", "Roles, groups, per-model and per-knowledge access grants, a group permission for key creation and an instance-wide endpoint allowlist for keys", "An audit log at metadata, request or request-and-response level, plus events for key creation and deletion", "No product telemetry found, third-party analytics off in the Docker image, and `OFFLINE_MODE` to stop the release check and model downloads" ], "weaknesses": [ "API keys are off by default, and each user gets one key with no scopes or expiry", "The API reference covers seven route groups, and the OpenAPI file and Swagger UI need `ENV=dev`", "52 advisories published from July to September 2026, 18 of them High, including cross-user code execution (CVE-2026-59216) and two OAuth account takeovers, all fixed", "Pre-1.0 (0.11), with database migrations in patch releases and no rolling updates during them", "The branding clause makes the licence non-OSI, and the enterprise licence has no published price" ], "agentNotes": [ "Ask the administrator to set `ENABLE_API_KEYS=true` and let your group create keys. `sk-` keys are refused until then", "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", "Call `/api/models` first and use an `id` from it. Model IDs depend on the instance's connections", "Poll `GET /api/v1/files/{id}/process/status` until it reads `completed` before adding a file to a knowledge base", "Expect a 403 on routes outside `API_KEYS_ALLOWED_ENDPOINTS` when the administrator has set an allowlist" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 2.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "D", "methodology": "0.3", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 52 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 54, "maintenance": 91, "payments": 20, "reliability": 68, "schema": 60, "security": 63, "transparency": 66 }, "provenanceScore": 79 }, "connect": { "install": "pip install open-webui \u0026\u0026 open-webui serve # or: docker run -d -p 3000:8080 --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --name open-webui --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main", "http": "curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/chat/completions \\\n -H \"Authorization: Bearer $OPEN_WEBUI_API_KEY\" \\\n -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" \\\n -d '{\"model\": \"llama3.1\", \"messages\": [{\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": \"Why is the sky blue?\"}]}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/inference.local", "tool": "https://letme.dev/open-webui" }, "area": "models", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Open WebUI Inc.", "domain": "openwebui.com", "domainRegistered": "2024-02-17", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "https://openwebui.com/terms", "privacy": "https://openwebui.com/privacy", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md", "securityTxt": "valid", "checked": "2026-10-03", "notes": [ "The LICENSE copyright line names Open WebUI Inc., created by Timothy Jaeryang Baek, and the privacy policy names Open WebUI, Inc. with no address.", "openwebui.com/.well-known/security.txt points to GitHub Security Advisories and expires on 2027-06-30.", "The privacy policy, last updated on 31 December 2025, covers openwebui.com and its community services only, says nothing about the self-hosted software, and gives no retention periods.", "We found no status page linked from openwebui.com. There's no hosted service, so an instance answers on its owner's own host.", "RDAP for openwebui.com gives a registration date of 2024-02-17, registrar Cloudflare. The terms page wasn't read for this check." ], "score": 79 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/open-webui.json", "live": { "slug": "open-webui", "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "open-webui/open-webui", "version": "v0.11.4", "released": "2026-09-21", "seenAt": "2026-10-04T16:35:15.328941559Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "open-webui", "version": "0.11.4", "released": "2026-09-21", "seenAt": "2026-10-04T16:35:15.214147757Z" } ], "githubStars": 153934, "pypiWeekly": 235140, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://openwebui.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2027-06-30T00:00:00Z", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:15:55.536560702Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.openwebui.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:18:04.221173659Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "openwebui.com", "registered": "2024-02-17", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/openwebui.com", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:06:48.742159254Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/open-webui/open-webui/main/CHANGELOG.md", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:47:49.239650644Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "3c27bf8cc8f9" }, { "url": "https://openwebui.com/privacy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:46:32.010185663Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "ab8757357aa3" }, { "url": "https://openwebui.com/terms", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T15:46:35.689261473Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "87cd832136e7" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-04T16:35:15.328941559Z" } }, "summary": "LocalAI has a score of 68 (B) against Open WebUI's 52 (D). Both do local inference. The largest gap is payments \u0026 pricing, 40 points." }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-open-webui", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-open-webui.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-open-webui.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-open-webui.min.md" }, "markdown": "LocalAI has a score of 68 (B) against Open WebUI's 52 (D). Both do local inference. The largest gap is payments \u0026 pricing, 40 points.\n\n- LocalAI: grade B, 68/100, rank #133 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/localai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/localai.json\n- 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\n\n## Which one, for what\n\nPick LocalAI for reliability (+16), schema \u0026 documentation (+21), agent ergonomics (+17), payments \u0026 pricing (+40).\n\nPick Open WebUI for maintenance \u0026 community (+11), transparency \u0026 trust (+26).\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | LocalAI | Open WebUI | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 84 | 68 | LocalAI +16 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 60 | LocalAI +21 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 54 | LocalAI +17 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 63 | Open WebUI +1 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | LocalAI +40 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 91 | Open WebUI +11 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 73 | Open WebUI +26 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -8 | |\n| **Total** | | **68 · B** | **52 · D** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | LocalAI | Open WebUI |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | Model platform |\n| Vendor | Ettore Di Giacinto and the LocalAI team | Open WebUI Inc. |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |\n| Pricing | Free | Free |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | MIT. Each backend image wraps an upstream engine (llama.cpp, vLLM, whisper.cpp, diffusers and others) under that engine's own licence | 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 |\n| Tools exposed | 42 | none |\n| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |\n| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |\n| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |\n| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |\n| llms.txt | no | yes |\n| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |\n| Last release | 2026-10-02 | 2026-09-21 |\n| Popularity | 48k stars | 153k stars |\n| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**LocalAI.** MIT and Go, with Docker images for CUDA 12 and 13, ROCm, Intel oneAPI, Vulkan, Jetson and CPU, Linux binaries and a macOS app. No authentication by default. Loopback, LAN and VPN binds answer every caller, and keys set by environment variable grant full admin.\n\n**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.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### LocalAI\n\n1. Send `Authorization: Bearer \u003ckey\u003e` when the operator has set keys. A 401 means the instance has auth on\n2. Read /.well-known/localai.json and /api/instructions first. Both answer without a key and list what this instance can do\n3. Back off on 429 and 503 for the Retry-After seconds. A 503 can mean the model is still loading\n4. Start `local-ai mcp-server` with `--read-only` unless the task is to install or delete models\n5. Take model names from /v1/models. Each instance names its own\n\n### Open WebUI\n\n1. Ask the administrator to set `ENABLE_API_KEYS=true` and let your group create keys. `sk-` keys are refused until then\n2. 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\n3. Call `/api/models` first and use an `id` from it. Model IDs depend on the instance's connections\n4. Poll `GET /api/v1/files/{id}/process/status` until it reads `completed` before adding a file to a knowledge base\n5. Expect a 403 on routes outside `API_KEYS_ALLOWED_ENDPOINTS` when the administrator has set an allowlist\n\n## Other comparisons with LocalAI or Open WebUI\n\n- [AnythingLLM vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-localai.md)\n- [AnythingLLM vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-open-webui.md)\n- [GPT4All vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-localai.md)\n- [GPT4All vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-open-webui.md)\n- [Jan vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-localai.md)\n- [Jan vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-open-webui.md)\n- [Khoj vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-localai.md)\n- [Khoj vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-open-webui.md)\n- [llama.cpp vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-localai.md)\n- [llama.cpp vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-open-webui.md)\n- [LM Studio vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-localai.md)\n- [LM Studio vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-open-webui.md)\n- [LocalAI vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-ollama.md)\n- [LocalAI vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-screenpipe.md)\n- [Ollama vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-open-webui.md)\n- [Open WebUI vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/open-webui-vs-screenpipe.md)\n- [LocalAI vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-underdog.md)\n\n## Disclosure\n\n- 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.\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-05", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.3", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "LocalAI vs Open WebUI", "url": "" } ], "description": "LocalAI has a score of 68 (B) against Open WebUI's 52 (D). Both do local inference. The largest gap is payments \u0026 pricing, 40 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "LocalAI B 68", "Open WebUI D 52", "scores" ], "h1": "LocalAI vs Open WebUI", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-localai-vs-open-webui.png", "path": "/compare/localai-vs-open-webui", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "LocalAI vs Open WebUI for AI agents, B 68 vs D 52 | Anchor Terminal", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-05", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-open-webui" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 1800, "slim": 330 }, "version": 1 }