Use LM Studio if you want a polished app to find, test and chat with models; use Ollama if you want an open source runtime that other apps connect to. Both run models on your own Mac, Windows or Linux machine and serve an API on it. Ollama is MIT licensed, runs models from its command line and its own Mac app, is built on llama.cpp, and answers a REST API on localhost that a long list of apps use. LM Studio is free for home and work but closed source, though its lms command line is MIT. It searches and downloads models from Hugging Face, runs GGUF models through llama.cpp and, on Apple silicon, MLX models; it chats with your documents offline, connects MCP servers, and serves OpenAI style endpoints on your machine or network. Plenty of people run both. Grux OS (MIT) works with either: it finds Ollama by itself and treats LM Studio's server as a local model, then uses it to act on your Mac.
| Ollama | LM Studio | |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT, open source | Free for home and work; app closed source, lms CLI MIT |
| How you use it | Command line, its own Mac app, and a REST API | A desktop app, plus a CLI and a headless mode |
| Where models come from | The Ollama library (ollama run, ollama pull) | Search and download from Hugging Face inside the app |
| Engines | llama.cpp | llama.cpp for GGUF, and MLX on Apple silicon |
| Serving other apps | REST API on localhost | OpenAI style endpoints, locally or on your network |
| Chat with documents and MCP | Through apps built on it | Built in: offline document chat and MCP servers |
| Platforms | Mac, Windows, Linux, Docker | Mac, Windows, Linux |
Details are from Ollama's README and LM Studio's documentation, read on 3 October 2026. Neither publishes a head to head speed test, so this page does not claim one; on Apple silicon the visible difference is that LM Studio can use MLX, which Ollama's README does not list as a backend.
Ollama and LM Studio run models. Grux OS uses a running model to act on your Mac: your mail, calendar, files and a shell whose every command can be undone. It finds Ollama at its default address by itself, and it treats any server at a localhost address, LM Studio's included, as a local model, so either runner works under it.
| Claim | Source |
|---|---|
| Ollama is MIT, built on llama.cpp, with a REST API on localhost | Ollama README |
| LM Studio runs GGUF through llama.cpp and MLX on Apple silicon, with MCP and document chat | LM Studio docs |
| LM Studio is free for home and work | LM Studio blog |
| LM Studio's lms command line is MIT | lmstudio-ai/lms |
| Grux treats any localhost server as a local model | ModelRates.swift |