Open WebUIvsPerplexity

Full side-by-side comparison — features, pricing, platforms, and which one wins in 2026.

Open WebUI

Chat Interfaces

Beautiful self-hosted ChatGPT-like interface for any LLM

Full review →Website ↗

Perplexity

AI Search

AI-powered search engine with real-time citations

Full review →Website ↗
FeatureOpen WebUIPerplexity
CategoryChat InterfacesAI Search
PricingFree (open-source)Free + Pro $20/mo
GitHub Stars
✓ More stars
65k
—
PlatformsmacOS, Linux, Windows, DockerWeb, iOS, Android
Key Features
  • ✓ Ollama integration
  • ✓ Multi-model
  • ✓ RAG
  • ✓ Web search
  • ✓ Voice input/output
  • ✓ Plugins
  • ✓ User management
  • ✓ Real-time search
  • ✓ Citations
  • ✓ Follow-up questions
  • ✓ File upload
  • ✓ API
  • ✓ Collections
Pros
  • + Feature-rich ChatGPT alternative
  • + Supports Ollama + OpenAI APIs
  • + Document upload and RAG
  • + Multi-user with auth
  • + Very active development
  • + Answers with cited sources
  • + Real-time web search
  • + Clean, fast interface
  • + Pro Search for deeper research
  • + Free tier available
Cons
  • − Requires Docker for easy setup
  • − Can be slow with large documents
  • − Plugin ecosystem still growing
  • − Resource intensive
  • − $20/mo for Pro features
  • − Sometimes hallucinates sources
  • − Limited for non-search tasks
  • − API pricing can add up
Tags
open-sourcechatuiollamaself-hosted
searchresearchcitationswebapi

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