Compare
AI Stays Local and Open WebUI
A self-hosted, provider-agnostic web interface for AI models.
When Open WebUI is the better fit
- You already run a model server and want a full-featured web interface in front of it.
- You want to self-host for several users with an interface you can extend.
- You want hybrid retrieval today.
Side by side
Open WebUI as its own public pages describe it on 2026-09-21, and AI Stays Local at the maturity its product data records. Where a source does not say, the table says so rather than guessing.
| Dimension | Open WebUI | AI Stays Local |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | A self-hosted web interface. | Command line and an OpenAI-compatible local API, in private beta for selected testers. A desktop app is planned and not built. |
| Runs models itself | It is an interface. It connects to runtimes such as Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs, including LM Studio and vLLM. | Yes. Inference sits behind an engine adapter; the recorded profiles run on upstream engines under their own licences. |
| Documents and retrieval | Yes. Retrieval with a choice of vector databases, including hybrid search that combines BM25 and vectors. | Folders you grant, lexical retrieval, answers that cite file and location, and refusal when the documents do not contain the answer. |
| Hardware planning | Not stated in the source checked | Evaluates the machine and recommends a model profile (private beta). Each model states execution, validation, usability, hardware and availability separately. |
| More than one machine | Not stated in the source checked | Planned. Multi-node execution is designed and not implemented. |
| Platforms | Python package, Docker, Docker Compose, Kustomize and Kubernetes. | Command line on Linux and macOS for selected testers. Measurements published from one Linux ARM64 machine. |
| Licence | The repository states that it contains code under multiple licences; see its licence files. | Commercial product. A Free edition is defined for local use; paid prices are provisional. The runtime is not open source. |
Where AI Stays Local puts its emphasis
- AI Stays Local is the runtime and the model choice, not only the interface. Its OpenAI-compatible local API means an interface such as Open WebUI can sit in front of it.
- It evaluates the hardware and publishes per-model evidence for the profiles it recommends.
- Its retrieval is lexical today; semantic retrieval is being validated.
Sources, checked 2026-09-21: Open WebUI repository README. Descriptions of other projects are summaries of their own public pages on that date and may since have changed. No statement here is a claim about another project's security.