deep-live-cam vs jan
Two of the top projects in Desktop AI apps, side by side: who leads on each score part and who each one suits, then setup, license, activity and what each review found.
deep-live-cam
Real-time webcam face swap from a single source image
jan
Desktop app that runs local models or cloud APIs, with a local server
Verdict
deep-live-cam ranks higher, 75 to 64. Of the 5 score parts we measure for both, deep-live-cam leads on 2, jan on none and 3 are even.
- Adoptiondeep-live-cam leads by 46 points, 95 to 49: a wide gap.
- FreshnessEven at 100.
- Maintenancedeep-live-cam leads by 5 points, 89 to 84.
- Easy to runEven at 50.
- Agent-readyEven at 0.
Pick deep-live-cam if you are
Creators and streamers wanting local real-time face swapping on a webcam
- Live webcam mode plus image and video file processing from one GUI
- Execution providers for CPU, CUDA, CoreML, DirectML and OpenVINO
Pick jan if you are
Users who want a local ChatGPT-style desktop app with a local API
- Runs local models and cloud providers from one app
- OpenAI-compatible local server at localhost:1337 for other applications
| What we compare | deep-live-cam | jan |
|---|---|---|
| Score parts, out of 100 | ||
| Adoption | 95, widely used | 49, known |
| Freshness | 100, active | 100, active |
| Maintenance | 89, healthy | 84, healthy |
| Easy to run | 50, easy | 50, easy |
| Agent-ready | 0, none | 0, none |
| Facts from GitHub and the README | ||
| Stars | 97k | 44.9k |
| License | AGPL-3.0 (copyleft) | custom license (read the license) |
| Last commit | Oct 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Last release | Sep 2026 | Oct 2026 |
| Language | Python | Rust |
| Docker | No | No |
| GPU | Optional | Optional |
| arm64 or Apple Silicon | Mentioned | Mentioned |
deep-live-cam
Deep-Live-Cam is a Python desktop GUI that swaps a face from one source image onto a webcam feed, video or image, using ONNX models (inswapper_128_fp16, gfpgan-1024). It supports mouth masking, mapping different faces to multiple subjects, and CPU, CUDA, CoreML, DirectML and OpenVINO execution providers. A paid pre-built edition with extra features is sold on the project website.
Who it is for: Creators and streamers wanting local real-time face swapping on a webcam
Strengths
- Live webcam mode plus image and video file processing from one GUI
- Execution providers for CPU, CUDA, CoreML, DirectML and OpenVINO
- Mouth mask and face mapping for multiple subjects in one frame
- Needs only a single source image, no per-face training
Weaknesses
- Manual install needs Python, ffmpeg, CUDA/cuDNN pinning; README says not for beginners
- CPU-only mode is slower; live preview takes 10-30 seconds to appear
- Command-line arguments are marked unmaintained in the README
- insightface models are limited to non-commercial research use
- GPU optional
- Needs Python 3.11-3.14, ffmpeg, onnxruntime, CUDA Toolkit 12.8 (NVIDIA), tkinter, OBS (for streaming output)
- Models: inswapper_128_fp16.onnx, gfpgan-1024.onnx, ONNX
jan
Jan is a Tauri desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux that downloads LLMs from Hugging Face and runs them through a bundled llama.cpp engine. It can also connect to cloud providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral and Groq. It exposes an OpenAI-compatible API at localhost:1337 and supports MCP for agent tools.
Who it is for: Users who want a local ChatGPT-style desktop app with a local API
Strengths
- Runs local models and cloud providers from one app
- OpenAI-compatible local server at localhost:1337 for other applications
- MCP integration for agentic tool use
- Engine variants for CPU, Vulkan, Metal, CUDA and ROCm builds
Weaknesses
- Desktop only; no Docker image or multi-user web deployment
- README says Apache 2.0, but license detection reports NOASSERTION
- Source build needs Node, Yarn, Rust; Windows also needs LLVM, Ninja, CMake
- Linux Arm64 is a linked how-to, not a packaged download
- RAM ≥ 8 GB
- GPU optional
- Models: GGUF via llama.cpp, Hugging Face models, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral
- port 1337
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