Open WebUI vs big-AGI
Two of the top chat uis, side by side: score, setup, license, activity and what each review found.
Open WebUI
Self-hosted chat UI for Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs with RBAC and RAG
big-AGI
Multi-model chat workspace with Beam side-by-side model comparison
| What we compare | Open WebUI | big-AGI |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 97, widely used | 27, niche |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 97, healthy | 70, fair |
| Easy to run | 50, easy | 83, very easy |
| Agent-ready | 0, none | 70, partly |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 154.3k | 7.1k |
| License | custom license (read the license) | MIT (permissive) |
| Last commit | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Last release | Oct 2026 | Aug 2026 |
| Language | Not stated | Not stated |
| Docker | Yes | Yes |
| GPU | Optional | Not needed |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Not stated | Mentioned |
Open WebUI
Open WebUI is a Python-served web interface (pip or Docker, port 8080) for Ollama and any OpenAI-compatible API such as LM Studio, vLLM, OpenRouter or Groq. It bundles RAG over 9 vector databases with hybrid BM25 search, web search through 20+ providers, image generation via ComfyUI, AUTOMATIC1111, DALL-E or Gemini, MCP and OpenAPI tool servers, and per-user roles with LDAP, OAuth and SCIM provisioning.
Who it is for: Teams and homelabs wanting a multi-user front end for local models
Strengths
- Images tagged :ollama and :cuda bundle Ollama or CUDA acceleration in one container
- RBAC, user groups, LDAP/AD, OAuth SSO and SCIM 2.0 provisioning built in
- 9 vector databases incl. ChromaDB, PGVector, Qdrant, Milvus and Elasticsearch
- Redis-backed sessions and WebSockets for multi-worker, multi-node deployments
Weaknesses
- Custom Open WebUI License requires keeping the Open WebUI branding visible
- Enterprise plan pitched at the top of the README; Terminals isolation is enterprise-only
- pip install is pinned to Python 3.11
- Data is lost unless the /app/backend/data volume is mounted
- GPU optional
- Docker + Compose
- Models: Ollama, OpenAI-compatible APIs, LM Studio, vLLM, OpenRouter
- port 8080
big-AGI
Big-AGI Open is the self-hostable web app behind big-agi.com, deployable via Docker or Vercel. It connects 20+ LLM services and 500+ models with your own API keys, and its Beam feature runs one prompt across several models and merges the answers. Personas, request inspection, web search with citations, image generation and multi-vendor speech are included; data stays local-first in the browser.
Who it is for: Power users comparing several models side by side with their own keys
Strengths
- Beam and Merge: fan one prompt out to several models and reconcile the results
- 20+ LLM services incl. Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama, LM Studio, LocalAI, Bedrock, Groq
- AI Inspector shows the exact requests sent to each provider
- MIT license; no usage charges, bring your own keys
Weaknesses
- Cross-device sync and 1 GB storage only on the hosted Pro tier at $10.99/month
- No SSO or shared team features in the open build; managed deployments by request
- README omits stack, ports and resource requirements; install guide lives in docs/
- README is mostly badges, taglines and release notes rather than specs
- no GPU
- Docker + Compose
- Models: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Ollama, LM Studio