One is a desktop app that runs models for you. The other is a web interface you host for a whole household or team. Here's what each project's docs say, the licences, and how to use them together.
"Open WebUI vs LM Studio" is the top comparison people search for Open WebUI, and it's a slightly apples-to-oranges question. That's exactly why it's worth answering. One is a program you install and use on your own machine. The other is a website you run for yourself and others. Here's the difference from each project's own documentation, and how to decide.
Open WebUI
v0.11.4 · self-hosted web UI
LM Studio
Desktop app · macOS / Windows / Linux
LM Studio's docs say it "is available for macOS, Windows, and Linux," runs LLMs "using llama.cpp," and can "serve local models on OpenAI-like endpoints, locally and on the network." A headless version, llmster, runs "no desktop app required." Its terms grant "a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Software solely for Your personal and / or internal business purposes." Open WebUI's README describes "a self-hosted AI platform" with "support for Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs," and install "via pip, uv, Docker, or Kubernetes."
The engine layer underneath (Ollama or LM Studio's own runtime) is a separate choice, covered in Ollama vs LM Studio. If you're weighing Open WebUI against other self-hosted front-ends, see Open WebUI vs LibreChat vs AnythingLLM. For the Docker setup, see running local AI in Docker.
Sources
Software & Systems Editor
Priya Nair
Priya has daily-driven more Linux distros than she can name and treats her setup like a workshop. She covers the operating systems, apps and settings worth your time — and cheerfully calls out the 'optimizations' that just quietly break your machine.
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Three ways to put a ChatGPT-style interface on your local models, compared on what their docs say, including the licence clause that matters once you're past 50 users.
Priya Nair · 1h ago · 7 min
Open WebUI's licence adds one clause to BSD: don't remove its branding above 50 end users per rolling 30 days without permission or an enterprise licence. Here's the text word for word, and what it does and doesn't restrict.
Priya Nair · 1h ago · 6 min
at one person typing, all three are basically tied. add a second and the gap turns into a cliff
Lena Fischer · Aug 22 · 7 min
Yes, Arc runs local LLMs well now — but skip the old IPEX-LLM guides (Intel archived it in January 2026). Here's the current, working path: Ollama or LM Studio on the Vulkan backend, step by step.
Ravi Malhotra · 3d ago · 7 min