# vanilla-cookbook vs vLLM

> Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.

| | vanilla-cookbook | vLLM |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46/100 | 91/100 ✓ |
| Rank in category | #13 of 18 in Recipe Management | #3 of 25 in LLM Inference |
| GitHub stars | 158 | 95 811 ✓ |
| Stars, last 30 days | +0 | +3 167 ✓ |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 13 | 14 ✓ |
| Latest release | v1.6.1 · 28 Oct 2026 ✓ | v0.32.0 · 17 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Easy ✓ | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | JavaScript | Python |

## Which one should you pick?

vLLM scores 91/100 against 46/100 for vanilla-cookbook, so it is the safer default.

vLLM ships more often: 14 stable releases in the past year, against 13 for vanilla-cookbook.

If you want the quickest setup, vanilla-cookbook is easier to run; vLLM needs more configuration.

vLLM is growing faster right now (+3 167 stars in 30 days).

## Details

- [vanilla-cookbook](https://selfhost.directory/project/vanilla-cookbook) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/vanilla-cookbook.md)
- [vLLM](https://selfhost.directory/project/vllm) (markdown: https://selfhost.directory/project/vllm.md)

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Source: https://selfhost.directory/compare/vanilla-cookbook-vs-vllm