Cheshire Cat AI vs LLMWare
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Cheshire Cat AI | LLMWare |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 83 · Excellent |
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker | source, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,090 | ★ 14,832 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | OpenAI Assistants | OpenAI Assistants |
What are Cheshire Cat AI and LLMWare?
Cheshire Cat AI
Cheshire Cat AI is a framework for developing custom AI agents on top of any language model. It provides conversational memory, a plugin system, and a ready-to-use admin panel for building production assistants.
- Long-term memory
- Plugin marketplace
- Model-agnostic
- Admin dashboard
LLMWare
LLMWare is an open-source framework for building retrieval-augmented generation pipelines optimized for small, specialized language models. It provides document parsing, embeddings, and model management for fully self-hosted deployments.
- Small model optimized
- Document parsing pipeline
- Embedded vector storage
- Model catalog
Cheshire Cat AI vs LLMWare: key differences
Both projects are written in Python. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Cheshire Cat AI versus Apache-2.0 for LLMWare. Cheshire Cat AI is the lighter option, starting around 2,048 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for LLMWare. LLMWare has the considerably larger community, at 14,832 GitHub stars versus 3,090.
Why pick each one
Choose Cheshire Cat AI if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Watch out for
- Plugin docs still maturing
- Requires LLM backend
Choose LLMWare if…
- Optimized for small models
- Integrated document parsing
- CPU-friendly pipelines
Watch out for
- Library not turnkey app
- Smaller community
Frequently asked questions
Is Cheshire Cat AI or LLMWare better?
Neither is universally better. LLMWare has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Cheshire Cat AI and LLMWare free and open-source?
Yes. Cheshire Cat AI is licensed under GPL-3.0 and LLMWare under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cheshire Cat AI and LLMWare with Docker?
Cheshire Cat AI: yes. LLMWare: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Cheshire Cat AI or LLMWare?
Cheshire Cat AI has the smaller minimum footprint at 2,048 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for LLMWare. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.