Guidance vs SGLang
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Guidance
Constrained generation language for controlling LLMs
VS
SGLang
Fast serving framework for LLMs and vision-language models
| Feature | Guidance | SGLang |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Jupyter Notebook | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 16,384 MB |
| Deployment | source | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 21,706 | ★ 31,514 |
| First released | 2023 | 2024 |
| Replaces | OpenAI API | OpenAI API |
Why pick each one
Choose Guidance if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Mature project with 21.7k GitHub stars
- Written in Jupyter Notebook
Choose SGLang if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 31.5k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Guidance or SGLang better?
Neither is universally better. SGLang has the larger community, while Guidance is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Guidance and SGLang free and open-source?
Yes. Guidance is licensed under MIT and SGLang under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Guidance and SGLang with Docker?
Guidance: check the project docs for container support. SGLang: yes.