Runtimes & inference · 12 alternatives

LM Studio alternatives.

LM Studio: A desktop app for local models. Here are other runtimes & inference tools, most-starred first.

Same category as LM Studio. Stars checked 2026-10-15.
Tool	What it does	Licence	GitHub stars
Ollama	One command to download and run a model.	MIT	183,450
llama.cpp	The engine behind most local AI.	MIT	131,388
vLLM	High-throughput LLM serving engine.	Apache-2.0	93,863
SGLang	High-throughput serving for LLMs and VLMs.	Apache-2.0	37,175
MLX	Apple's array framework for Apple silicon.	MIT	28,797
llamafile	Package a model and runtime into one executable.	Other	26,260
MLC LLM	Compile and run LLMs on any device.	Apache-2.0	23,249
KoboldCpp	One-file GGUF runner with a built-in UI.	AGPL-3.0	12,009
MLX Examples	Official MLX example models and scripts.	MIT	9,012
MLX LM	Runs LLMs natively on Apple silicon.	MIT	7,322
llama-swap	Hot-swaps models behind one OpenAI-style endpoint.	MIT	5,964
MLX-VLM	Vision-language models on MLX.	MIT	5,628

LM Studio setup ollama vs lm studio lm studio vs llama cpp open webui vs lm studio All Runtimes & inference

Stars are a popularity signal, not a quality score. Gap Scores come after our Mac Studio tests.

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# LM Studio alternatives

URL: https://insidethemachine.ai/alternatives/lm-studio
LM Studio: A desktop app for local models. Browse, download and chat with no terminal needed.
Category: Runtimes & inference. Sorted by GitHub stars (checked 2026-10-15).

| name | what | licence | stars | md |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ollama | One command to download and run a model. | MIT | 183450 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/ollama.md |
| llama.cpp | The engine behind most local AI. | MIT | 131388 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/llama-cpp.md |
| vLLM | High-throughput LLM serving engine. | Apache-2.0 | 93863 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/vllm.md |
| SGLang | High-throughput serving for LLMs and VLMs. | Apache-2.0 | 37175 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/sglang.md |
| MLX | Apple's array framework for Apple silicon. | MIT | 28797 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/mlx.md |
| llamafile | Package a model and runtime into one executable. | Other | 26260 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/llamafile.md |
| MLC LLM | Compile and run LLMs on any device. | Apache-2.0 | 23249 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/mlc-llm.md |
| KoboldCpp | One-file GGUF runner with a built-in UI. | AGPL-3.0 | 12009 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/koboldcpp.md |
| MLX Examples | Official MLX example models and scripts. | MIT | 9012 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/mlx-examples.md |
| MLX LM | Runs LLMs natively on Apple silicon. | MIT | 7322 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/mlx-lm.md |
| llama-swap | Hot-swaps models behind one OpenAI-style endpoint. | MIT | 5964 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/llama-swap.md |
| MLX-VLM | Vision-language models on MLX. | MIT | 5628 | https://insidethemachine.ai/setups/mlx-vlm.md |