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h2oGPT vs PrivateGPT

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?
H2 h2oGPT Archived Private chat and document Q&A with local LLMs VS PR PrivateGPT Ask questions about your documents fully offline
Featureh2oGPTPrivateGPT
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score15 · At risk100 · Excellent
StatusArchivedActively maintained
CategorySelf-Hosted AISelf-Hosted AI
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguagePythonPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM8,192 MB8,192 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 11,965★ 57,526
First released20232023
ReplacesChatGPTChatGPT

What are h2oGPT and PrivateGPT?

h2oGPT

h2oGPT is an open-source platform for private question answering and chat over documents using local or remote LLMs. It supports many file types, web search, and an OpenAI-compatible server.

  • Document Q&A
  • Many file formats
  • OpenAI-compatible API
  • Local and remote models

PrivateGPT

PrivateGPT is a production-ready AI project that lets you ask questions about documents using LLMs entirely offline. It provides an API following the OpenAI standard and a Gradio UI for local RAG.

  • Fully offline RAG
  • OpenAI-compatible API
  • Document ingestion
  • No data leaves the host

Read the full PrivateGPT guide →

h2oGPT vs PrivateGPT: key differences

The biggest difference is maintenance: h2oGPT's repository is archived and no longer developed, while PrivateGPT is actively maintained. Both projects are written in Python. PrivateGPT has the considerably larger community, at 57,526 GitHub stars versus 11,965.

Why pick each one

Choose h2oGPT if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 12k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
h2oGPT details

Choose PrivateGPT if…

  • Fully offline capable
  • OpenAI-compatible API
  • Privacy-focused design

Watch out for

  • GPU recommended
  • Setup can be fiddly
PrivateGPT details

Frequently asked questions

Is h2oGPT or PrivateGPT better?

Neither is universally better. PrivateGPT has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are h2oGPT and PrivateGPT free and open-source?

Yes. h2oGPT is licensed under Apache-2.0 and PrivateGPT under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run h2oGPT and PrivateGPT with Docker?

h2oGPT: yes. PrivateGPT: yes.

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