[HN Gopher] Jan - Ollama alternative with local UI
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Jan - Ollama alternative with local UI
Author : maxloh
Score : 163 points
Date : 2025-08-09 09:54 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| roscas wrote:
| Tried to run Jan but it does not start llama server. It also
| tries to allocate 30gb that is the size of the model but my vram
| is only 10gb and machine is 32gb, so it does not make sense.
| Ollama works perfect with 30b models. Another thing that is not
| good is that it make constant connections to github and other
| sites.
| SilverRubicon wrote:
| Did you see the feature list? It does not deny that makes
| connections to other sites.
|
| - Cloud Integration: Connect to OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral,
| Groq, and others
|
| - Privacy First: Everything runs locally when you want it to
| hoppp wrote:
| It probably loads the entire model into ram at once while
| ollama solves this and does not, it has a better loading
| strategy
| blooalien wrote:
| Yeah, if I remember correctly, Ollama loads models in
| "layers" and is capable of putting some layers in GPU RAM and
| the rest in regular system RAM.
| biinjo wrote:
| Im confused. Isn't the whole premise of Ollama that its locallt
| ran? What's the difference or USP when comparing the two.
| moron4hire wrote:
| That's not the actual tagline being used in the repo. The repo
| calls itself an alternative to ChatGPT. Whoever submitted the
| link changed it.
| hoppp wrote:
| I think its an alternative because ollama has no UI and its
| hard to use for non-developers who will never touch the CLI
| simonw wrote:
| Ollama added a chat UI to their desktop apps a week ago:
| https://ollama.com/blog/new-app
| apitman wrote:
| Their new app is closed source right?
| simonw wrote:
| Huh, yeah it looks like the GUI component is closed
| source. Their GitHub version only has the CLI.
| diggan wrote:
| I think at this point it's fair to say that most of the
| stuff Ollama does, is closed source. AFAIK, only the CLI
| is open source, everything else isn't.
| conradev wrote:
| Yeah, and they're also on a forked llama.cpp
| accrual wrote:
| I have been using the Ollama GUI on Windows since release
| and appreciated its simplicity. It recently received an
| update that puts a large "Turbo" button in the message box
| that links to a sign-in page.
|
| I'm trying Jan now and am really liking it - it feels
| friendlier than the Ollama GUI.
| dcreater wrote:
| And ollamas founder was on here posting that they are
| still focused on local inference... I don't see ollama as
| anything more than a funnel for their subscription now
| bogdart wrote:
| I tried Jan last year, but the UI was quite buggy. But maybe they
| fixed it.
| diggan wrote:
| Please do try it out again, if things used to be broken but
| they no longer are, it's a good signal that they're gaining
| stability :) And if it's still broken, even better signal that
| they're not addressing bugs which would be worse.
| esafak wrote:
| So you're saying bugs are good?!
| diggan wrote:
| No, but maybe that their shared opinion will be a lot more
| insightful if they provide a comparison between then and
| now, instead of leaving it at "it was like that before, now
| I don't know".
| mathfailure wrote:
| Is this an alternative to OpenWebUI?
| apitman wrote:
| Not exactly. OWUI is a server with a web app frontend. Jan is a
| desktop app you install. But it does have the ability to run a
| server for other apps like OWUI to talk to.
| ekianjo wrote:
| Openweb-ui does not include a server.
| apitman wrote:
| I was referring to Jan.
| cristoperb wrote:
| It starts a webserver to serve its UI, which is what your
| comment parent meant. It doesn't provide its own openai-
| style API, which I guess is what you meant.
| PeterStuer wrote:
| More an alternative to LM Studio I think from the description.
| apitman wrote:
| Jan also supports connecting to remote APIs (like
| OpenRouter), which I don't think LM Studio does
| semessier wrote:
| still looking for vLLM to support Mac ARM Metal GPUs
| baggiponte wrote:
| Yeah. The docs tell you that you should build it yourself,
| but...
| apitman wrote:
| I really like Jan, especially the organization's principles:
| https://jan.ai/
|
| Main deal breaker for me when I tried it was I couldn't talk to
| multiple models at once, even if they were remote models on
| OpenRouter. If I ask a question in one chat, then switch to
| another chat and ask a question, it will block until the first
| one is done.
|
| Also Tauri apps feel pretty clunky on Linux for me.
| c-hendricks wrote:
| Yeah, webkit2gtk is a bit of a drag
| diggan wrote:
| > Also Tauri apps feel pretty clunky on Linux for me.
|
| All of them, or this one specifically? I've developed a bunch
| of tiny apps for my own usage (on Linux) with Tauri (maybe
| largest is just 5-6K LoC) and always felt snappy to me, mostly
| doing all the data processing with Rust then the UI part with
| ClojureScript+Reagent.
| _the_inflator wrote:
| Yep. I really see them as an architecture blueprint with a
| reference implementation and not so much as a one size fits all
| app.
|
| I stumbled upon Jan.ai a couple of months ago when I was
| considering a similar app approach. I was curious because
| Jan.ai went way beyond what I considered to be limitations.
|
| I haven't tried Jan.ai yet, I see it as an implementation not a
| solution.
| signbcc wrote:
| > especially the organization's principles
|
| I met the team late last year. They're based out of Singapore
| and Vietnam. They ghosted me after promising to have two
| follow-up meetings, and were unresponsive to any emails, like
| they just dropped dead.
|
| Principles and manifestos are a dime a dozen. It matters if you
| live by them or just have them as PR pieces. These folks are
| the latter.
| dcreater wrote:
| With a name like Menlo research, I assumed they were based in
| Menlo park. They probably intended that
| venkyvb wrote:
| How does this compare to LM studio ?
| rmonvfer wrote:
| I use both and Jan is basically the OSS version of LM Studio
| with some added features (e.g, you can use remote providers)
|
| I first used Jan some time ago and didn't really like it but it
| has improved a lot so I encourage everyone to try it, it's a
| great project
| angelmm wrote:
| For me, the main difference is that LM Studio main app is not
| OSS. But they are similar in terms of features, although I
| didn't use LM Studio that much.
| reader9274 wrote:
| Tried to run the gpt-oss:20b in ollama (runs perfectly) and tried
| to connect ollama to jan but it didn't work.
| thehamkercat wrote:
| Exactly: https://github.com/menloresearch/jan/issues/5474
|
| Can't make it work with ollama endpoint
|
| this seems to be the problem but they're not focusing on it:
| https://github.com/menloresearch/jan/issues/5474#issuecommen...
| accrual wrote:
| I got Jan working with Ollama today. Jan reported it couldn't
| connect to my Ollama instance on the same host despite it
| working fine for other apps.
|
| I captured loopback and noticed Ollama returning an HTTP 403
| forbidden message to Jan.
|
| The solution was set environment variables:
| OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0 OLLAMA_ORIGINS=*
|
| Here's the rest of the steps:
|
| - Jan > Settings > Model Providers
|
| - Add new provider called "Ollama"
|
| - Set API key to "ollama" and point to
| http://localhost:11434/v1
|
| - Ensure variables above are set
|
| - Click "Refresh" and the models should load
|
| Note: Even though an API key is not required for local Ollama,
| Jan apparently doesn't consider it a valid endpoint unless a
| key is provided. I set mine to "ollama" and then it allowed me
| to start a chat.
| klausa wrote:
| So this is how women named Siri felt in 2011.
| lagniappe wrote:
| Hello Jan ;)
| jwildeboer wrote:
| My name is Jan and I am not an AI thingy. Just FTR. :)
| underlines wrote:
| Jan here too, and I work with LLMs full time and I'm a speaker
| about these topics. Annoying how many times people ask me if
| Jan.ai is me lol
| dsp_person wrote:
| We need a steve.ai
| ithkuil wrote:
| I want a Robert Duck AI
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