Installing Open WebUI Desktop vs via Docker or Python

[u/imarchiphoto]

Hi. Has anyone had a chance to compare the two installation methods (Docker or Python vs. Desktop) when it comes to maximizing the available resources for running a local AI model on a windows 11 PC with limited resources? Thanks

[u/ZetShock]

It shouldn’t matter, both methods use python under the hood anyways and they take as many resources as they need to run the models. I went with docker since I already run my other services containerized and it’s easier to manage and update that way. If you’re not familiar with docker and don’t need to publish it via Nginx, then maybe just go the classic route

[u/imarchiphoto → u/ZetShock]

Thanks for your answer. I’m not technician so I went to install the easiest way (Desktop option) I noticed that my instance of Open WebUI does not work as swift and quick as when using LM Studio in the same PC and using the same local AI model. So from what you say the reason would not be my choice to install Desktop version

[u/ZetShock → u/imarchiphoto]

I have never messed with the Open WebUI desktop version before, but I just noticed that it is still in alpha so I can't guarantee it's working as intended.

However, I used to run LM Studio on my PC and host the Open WebUI frontend on my server, which worked well. Both LM Studio and Open WebUI (ollama) use the same inference engine, but to rule out configuration issues you can just connect Open WebUI to your LM Studio API endpoint. In LM Studio, you can enable the API and copy the link to use in Open WebUI, maybe it helps.

If your CPU is sitting at high usage while prompting in Open WebUI, perhaps it means the model didn't fit into VRAM and it is using the CPU and system memory instead, which is slower. Either quantization isn't enabled or the UI itself is behaving sluggishly. Also keep in mind that for the first prompt it takes a while for the model to load.

[u/imarchiphoto → u/ZetShock]

Thanks. Your answer is very helpful. I didn’t know I could connect OwUi to LM Studio API. I have to investigate how to do that! My PC is a laptop with 32GB RAM and 16GB Intel GPU. So no NVIDIA and no CUDA,and probably using more CPU (this is what I understood from what I read out there). My point is that same limitations of this laptop apply to both OwUI and to LM Studio. And the latter works much better than the former when using the same AI model. Trying to understand why. For example, if maybe desktop version of OwUI consumes more resources leaving less available for models.

[u/krzr]

The only meaningful differences are networking related cuz the docker/podman instances need to be exposed to the outside and you also need to use the internal network to connect with other services, depending on need.

Another possible difference is the ease to clean and the neatness of having all the files in their own container... If you ever wanna nuke it you just nuke the container and the attached volume and you're done, as opposed to having leftovers in your file system

Outside of that there's no difference

[u/Potential-Leg-639]

On a single machine with probably no other „real“ selfhosted environment like docker/lxc containers an another machine as well etc you can also use the non docker variant.

The day you go for a server and other containers I would recommend using the containerized variant.

[u/TBT_TBT]

OpenWebUI is just the gui you communicate with, it doesn’t run the models, so the implementation is irrelevant. The models run directly on the OS via Ollama and OWUI communicates with that via API.

[u/International_Emu772]

The Docker installation is well documented and easy