Jan vs Ollama
A side-by-side comparison of two open-source tools to help you choose the right one.
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary | An offline AI assistant that runs on your device. | Run open LLMs locally with a single command. |
| GitHub stars | 30K | 175K |
| License | AGPL 3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Pricing | Free & Open Source | Free & Open Source |
| Self-hostable | ||
| Replaces | ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot | ChatGPT, Claude |
| Rating | 4.6 / 5 | 4.9 / 5 |
Jan features
- Runs open models entirely offline on CPU or GPU
- Cross-platform desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux)
- Optional connection to remote model APIs
- Local API server compatible with OpenAI clients
- No telemetry by default
Ollama features
- One-command model download and run (e.g. `ollama run llama3.3`)
- Built-in OpenAI-compatible REST API for local apps
- Runs open models — Llama, DeepSeek, Qwen, Gemma, Mistral — on CPU or GPU
- GPU acceleration on NVIDIA, AMD, and Apple Silicon
- Custom models and prompts via Modelfiles, plus a large model library