SHSelfHostIndex

Petals vs Text Embeddings Inference

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted local llm runners options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
PE Petals Run large language models collaboratively in a swarm VS TE Text Embeddings Inference Fast inference server for text embedding models
FeaturePetalsText Embeddings Inference
CategoryLocal LLM RunnersLocal LLM Runners
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguagePythonRust
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM8,192 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentsource, dockerdocker
GitHub stars★ 10,483★ 4,985
First released20222023
ReplacesOpenAI APIOpenAI Embeddings API

Why pick each one

Choose Petals if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 10.5k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
Petals details

Choose Text Embeddings Inference if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (5k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Rust
Text Embeddings Inference details

Frequently asked questions

Is Petals or Text Embeddings Inference better?

Neither is universally better. Petals has the larger community, while Text Embeddings Inference is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Petals and Text Embeddings Inference free and open-source?

Yes. Petals is licensed under MIT and Text Embeddings Inference under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Petals and Text Embeddings Inference with Docker?

Petals: yes. Text Embeddings Inference: yes.

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