Open WebUI vs OpenAI

Open WebUI (On a mission to build the best AI user interface.) and OpenAI both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

OpenAI (rank #22) holds a narrow lead over Open WebUI (rank #93) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (66 vs 58). The gap of 8 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

On code quality (the state of repositories, tests, releases and polish), OpenAI is slightly ahead of Open WebUI. On education (docs, guides and learning material for developers), Open WebUI is ahead of OpenAI. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), OpenAI is clearly ahead of Open WebUI. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Open WebUI is clearly ahead of OpenAI. On momentum (release cadence and how fast the ecosystem moves), OpenAI is clearly ahead of Open WebUI.

Open WebUI carries 164,397 GitHub stars across 25 public repos, with 10 repositories active in the last 90 days and 180 external contributors on record. OpenAI shows 846,432 stars across 268 public repos, 49 active in the last 90 days and 426 external contributors. The star gap on its own does not decide the comparison, but OpenAI's footprint is roughly 5.1x larger, which usually shows up in downstream signals like inbound issues and third party integrations.

Open WebUI is the stronger read for anyone weighting reach. OpenAI looks better where momentum is the deciding factor. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.