# TextGen vs Underdog

> TextGen scores 45.1 (E) on agent readiness against Underdog's 29.5 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Underdog leads on maintenance & community. Both do inference open weights. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/text-generation-webui-vs-underdog
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/text-generation-webui-vs-underdog.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/text-generation-webui-vs-underdog.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/text-generation-webui-vs-underdog.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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

TextGen scores 45.1 (E) on agent readiness against Underdog's 29.5 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Underdog leads on maintenance & community. Both do inference open weights.

- TextGen: grade E, 45.1/100, rank #775 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/text-generation-webui.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/text-generation-webui.json
- Underdog: grade F, 29.5/100, rank #833 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/underdog.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/underdog.json

## Which one, for what

### TextGen (E)

Good for: A person who wants one app for several backends (llama.cpp, ExLlamaV3, Transformers) with an OpenAI and Anthropic-compatible endpoint, LoRA training and image generation.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 51 against 33
- Schema & documentation, 61 against 24
- Agent ergonomics, 50 against 15
- Security & auth, 40 against 14
- Transparency & trust, 49 against 19

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: No release since v4.9 on 20 May 2026 and no code commit on `main` or `dev` since 31 May 2026

### Underdog (F)

Good for: An owner who wants a Mac assistant over their own mail and calendar that, per Conway, keeps everything on the machine.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 56 against 24

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- No incidents deducted, where TextGen loses 4 points for them

Watch for: No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the `husky serve` command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | TextGen | Underdog | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 51 | 33 | TextGen +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 61 | 24 | TextGen +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 50 | 15 | TextGen +35 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 14 | TextGen +26 |
| 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) | 24 | 56 | Underdog +32 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 49 | 19 | TextGen +30 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **45.1 · E** | **29.5 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | TextGen | Underdog |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | Model platform |
| Vendor | oobabooga | Conway Research |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | Model weights Apache-2.0 on Hugging Face (Underdog 27B 1.0 and its ternary build, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1, Bark 0.8B 1.0); woof-1.0-4B carries the Apache-2.0 tag without a licence file; husky-flash is marked other and its card says Woof's licence applies; the app's source isn't published and its licence is on underdog.ai, unchecked |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-05-20 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-30 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| 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 |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 48k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**TextGen.** AGPL-3.0 with no telemetry, and a local API on 127.0.0.1:5000 that checks the Host header, limits CORS to localhost and separates an admin key from the caller's key. No release since v4.9 on 20 May 2026, no code commits since 31 May, no test suite, and ten security advisories in the year, all fixed.

**Underdog.** Apache-2.0 weights on Hugging Face for Underdog 27B 1.0, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 and Bark 0.8B 1.0, with no gate. No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the `husky serve` command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public.

## Before you call either

### TextGen

1. Ask the owner to launch with `--api`. Nothing listens on port 5000 without it, and a model must be loaded first
2. Call `http://127.0.0.1:5000/v1`. Any Host header other than localhost or 127.0.0.1 gets 400 `Invalid host header` unless `--listen` is set
3. Send the key as `Authorization: Bearer` on OpenAI routes and as `x-api-key` on `/v1/messages`. Model loading needs the admin key
4. Read `http://127.0.0.1:5000/docs` or `modules/api/typing.py` for parameters. `max_tokens` defaults to 512 on chat completions
5. Run tool calls yourself. The API returns `finish_reason: "tool_calls"` and executes nothing on the server
6. Use the repository name `oobabooga/textgen`. The old `text-generation-webui` URL redirects

### Underdog

1. Don't look for an agent interface to Underdog. We found no API, MCP server, CLI or SDK, and underdog.ai, where one would be documented, refuses our reader
2. Don't count on `husky serve`. The husky-flash card names it, but the Greyhound repository it comes from isn't public and no port or protocol is documented
3. Run `splash serve --model ConwayResearch/Underdog-27B-1.0 --default-reasoning-effort medium` with Inco AI's Splash 1.1.0 or later for an OpenAI-compatible endpoint on `127.0.0.1:8000`, and pass `--api-key`, since Splash starts without authentication
4. Pin a Hugging Face revision. Woof 4B went from 1.0 to 1.1 in eight days with no note of what changed
5. Check Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 files against the SHA-256 values in release-provenance.json before loading them

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, TextGen or Underdog?

TextGen scores 45.1 (E) on agent readiness against Underdog's 29.5 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Underdog leads on maintenance & community.

### Are TextGen and Underdog open source?

TextGen is open source (AGPL-3.0). No open-source release is listed for Underdog.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with TextGen or Underdog

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

## Disclosure

- Underdog competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. 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. underdog.ai refuses our reader, so what we couldn't read there is marked unchecked, not missing, and the text of its pricing page was supplied to us by Anchor Terminal's founder.