Ollama review

Ollama FAQ

Is Ollama free and open source?

Yes. Ollama's source code is on GitHub (ollama/ollama) under the MIT license, so you can use it for free. Its website also links to a pricing page (https://ollama.com/pricing) for any paid plans.

How do I install Ollama?

Run curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Is Ollama still maintained?

Yes. The ollama/ollama repository was last updated on Oct 25, 2026, and the latest release, v0.40.11 on GitHub, came out on Oct 24, 2026.

How popular is Ollama?

Ollama has 185.5k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 984 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 730 a week. Its main package had about 4M downloads that week, −2% against its own 4-week average. That made it #29 among LLM inference and training tools on the Devtoolwatch Board.

Ollama vs llama.cpp: how do they compare?

Ollama and llama.cpp are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as LLM inference and training tools. Ollama has 185.5k GitHub stars and llama.cpp has 133k. llama.cpp is a plain C/C++ library and set of tools for running LLM and VLM inference locally or in the cloud on many kinds of hardware. llama.cpp review.

Ollama vs vLLM: how do they compare?

Ollama and vLLM are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as LLM inference and training tools. Ollama has 185.5k GitHub stars and vLLM has 96k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Ollama's main package had 4M downloads and vLLM's had 677.2k. vLLM is an open-source Python library and engine for high-throughput, memory-efficient inference and serving of large language models. vLLM review.

What are the best alternatives to Ollama?

Other LLM inference and training tools on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: dsh-our-free-model (#1), magpie (#2), Strata (#3), edge0 (#4), OmniRoute (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

How do I use Ollama with Claude Code?

Run ollama launch claude. Ollama starts Claude Code connected to Ollama models. Running ollama by itself also prompts you to connect existing agents such as Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Copilot.

How do I use Ollama in Python?

Install the official client with pip install ollama. Then import chat from ollama and call chat with a model name and a messages list. The Python client requires Python 3.8 or later.

How do I use Ollama cloud models?

Ollama runs models locally or in the cloud, and requests to remote models route through ollama.com. When you use ollama launch, Ollama passes each cloud model's context length and capabilities to your coding tool.

Is Ollama an LLM?

No. Ollama is not a model itself. Ollama is a tool that runs open models such as Gemma, Qwen, DeepSeek, and gpt-oss, and serves them through a CLI and a REST API.

How do I use Ollama on Windows?

Install Ollama in PowerShell with irm https://ollama.com/install.ps1 | iex, or download OllamaSetup.exe. Then run ollama to start a model or connect an agent.

How do I use Ollama in VS Code?

Use a VS Code extension that connects to Ollama. The README lists Cline, Continue, twinny, and Microsoft's AI Toolkit for VS Code as community integrations.