Ollama vs llama.cpp vs LocalAI
A side-by-side look at how actively Ollama, llama.cpp and LocalAI are developed on GitHub — popularity, contributor base, commit activity and how quickly issues and pull requests move.
What the numbers say
- Ollama is the most-starred of the 3, with 182k stars — about 3.7× LocalAI's 49k.
- Over the 52 weeks to the snapshot, llama.cpp recorded the most commits (4.6k), against 1.2k for Ollama.
- llama.cpp has closed or merged the most pull requests in its lifetime: 14k.
- Relative to its popularity, LocalAI carries the lightest open-issue load: 1.9 open issues per 1,000 stars, versus 13.9 for Ollama.
Head-to-head
Snapshot taken 30 September 2026.
| Metric | Ollama Active | llama.cpp Active | LocalAI Active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | 182k | 130k | 49k |
| Forks | 18k | 24k | 4.5k |
| Contributors | 615 | 2.1k | 257 |
| Commits, last 52 weeks | 1.2k | 4.6k | 3.6k |
| Open issues | 2.5k | 871 | 92 |
| Open pull requests | 1.6k | 1.7k | 61 |
| Closed / merged PRs | 5.4k | 14k | 6.1k |
| Watchers | 1.0k | 841 | 299 |
| Last push | 30 Sep 2026 | 30 Sep 2026 | 30 Sep 2026 |
| Latest release | v0.35.0 (Sep 2026) | v0.5.0 (Sep 2026) | v4.10.0 (Sep 2026) |
| Main language | Go | C++ | Go |
| Licence | MIT | MIT | MIT |
| Created | Jun 2023 | Mar 2023 | Mar 2023 |
Bold marks the highest value in a row. “Active / Slowing / Dormant” is a simple heuristic from how recently code was pushed and open issues per star — a starting point, not a verdict. Stars measure popularity, not quality.
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