RunOnVPS

Comparison · self-hosted AI chat interfaces

Open WebUI vs LibreChat

Open WebUI: Self-hosted AI platform and chat interface for Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs with built-in RAG.
LibreChat: Self-hosted AI chat platform (enhanced ChatGPT clone) unifying major AI providers with agents and MCP support.

Compare requirementsSize them together

Requirements

Side-by-side VPS specs

Every value is taken from each app’s RunOnVPS dataset entry. Badges show whether a figure is an official project figure or a RunOnVPS estimate — never compare the two as if they were equal.

Open WebUI vs LibreChat hardware requirements and facts
ResourceOpen WebUILibreChat
Minimum RAM2 GB Estimated1 GiB Official
Minimum CPU1 vCPU Estimated1 vCPU Official
Minimum disk10 GB EstimatedNot stated Not stated
Recommended RAM4 GB Estimated2 GB Official
Recommended CPU2 vCPU EstimatedNot stated Not stated
Recommended diskNot stated Not statedNot stated Not stated
Suggested VPS tier (our sizing)4 GB RAM tier2 GB RAM tier
GPUOptionalNot required
Docker supportYesYes
LicenceOpen WebUI License (BSD-3-based with branding clause)MIT
GitHub stars~157k~46k
Commercial alternativeChatGPTChatGPT
CategoryAutomation / AI / DevAutomation / AI / Dev

Disk figures describe the application footprint recorded in the dataset. Personal media, documents, backups and other user data can require substantially more storage. Full source notes: Open WebUI requirements · LibreChat requirements.

Who should pick it

Open WebUI

Pick Open WebUI if you want the chat interface built around Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs with built-in RAG. Note its licence: deployments over 50 users per 30 days may not remove the branding without contributor permission or an Enterprise licence.

See the full Open WebUI requirements →

Who should pick it

LibreChat

Pick LibreChat if you want an MIT-licensed front-end with published sizing: its docs state a 1 GiB RAM / 1 vCPU minimum, and the full Compose stack includes MongoDB, Meilisearch and a RAG API with PostgreSQL/pgvector.

See the full LibreChat requirements →

Verdict

The short version

  • On published figures LibreChat is the lighter, fully documented install: official 1 GiB minimum / 2 GB recommended, mapping to our 2 GB RAM tier. Open WebUI publishes no hardware minimum — its docs only note that the :slim image idles at about 300 MiB — so its 2 GB / 4 GB rows are RunOnVPS estimates and it maps to the 4 GB tier.
  • GPU rows differ: LibreChat is recorded as not requiring a GPU (its docs state it does not run AI models itself), while Open WebUI lists a GPU as optional — only relevant for bundled Ollama/CUDA images or local embedding and speech, not for the UI itself against external APIs.
  • Licence is a real fork in the road: LibreChat is MIT; Open WebUI (v0.6.6+) uses the Open WebUI License, a BSD-3-based licence with a branding clause for larger deployments.
  • Open WebUI has the far larger GitHub audience in our dataset (~157k vs ~46k stars, checked 2026-10-24). Both are catalogued as self-hosted ChatGPT alternatives.

Neither verdict nor table scores the apps against each other — the right pick depends on the job, the licence you can accept, and how much of the spec is published rather than estimated. If you plan to run either alongside other apps, add it to a multi-app VPS estimate →