# Axolotl vs TRL

| Attribute | Axolotl | TRL |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 51.9 (32% (low)) | 56.9 (23% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 29 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 1 | 52 |
| adoption.github_stars | 12,407 | 19,154 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A free framework that simplifies fine-tuning and customization of large language models on GPU hardware, with support for multiple training techniques and model architectures. | A toolkit for enhancing transformer-based language models after initial training using various preference-alignment and optimization methods. It includes trainers integrated with the Hugging Face ecosystem and supports distributed training across multiple GPUs and clusters. |
| features.capabilities | `{"soc2_type_ii":false,"pricing_model":"free_open_source","architecture_model":"open_source_library_local_gpu","mit_or_apache_permissive_oss_license":false,"flash_attention_and_xformers_compilation":true,"four_bit_and_eight_bit_memory_quantization":true,"native_huggingface_hub_push_pull_integration":true,"weights_and_biases_wandb_experiment_tracking":false,"peft_lora_and_qlora_parameter_efficient_tuning":true,"rlhf_and_dpo_preference_alignment_optimization":true,"serverless_hosting_of_fine_tuned_adapters_lorax":false,"synthetic_data_generation_and_evaluation_pipeline":false,"distributed_multi_gpu_orchestration_fsdp_deepspeed":true}` | `{"pricing_model":"free_open_source","architecture_model":"open_source_library_local_gpu","mit_or_apache_permissive_oss_license":true,"four_bit_and_eight_bit_memory_quantization":true,"peft_lora_and_qlora_parameter_efficient_tuning":true,"rlhf_and_dpo_preference_alignment_optimization":true,"distributed_multi_gpu_orchestration_fsdp_deepspeed":true}` |
| integrations.count | 8 | 7 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"HuggingFace Hub"},{"name":"HuggingFace Transformers"},{"name":"PEFT"},{"name":"vLLM"},{"name":"TRL"},{"name":"DeepSpeed"},{"name":"FSDP"},{"name":"CUDA"}]` | `[{"name":"transformers"},{"name":"PEFT"},{"name":"DeepSpeed"},{"name":"Accelerate"},{"name":"vLLM"},{"name":"torch_xla"},{"name":"torch.distributed"}]` |
| language.primary | Python | Python |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true}` | `{"cli":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Free and open source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://axolotl-ai-cloud.github.io/axolotl/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-21T10:59:28.191Z"}` | `{"type":"free_open_source","sourceUrl":"https://huggingface.co/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-21T11:09:14.090Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | - |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | unknown |
| release.cadence_days | 9 | 10 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.18.0","date":"2026-07-17T12:28:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.18.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.17.0","date":"2026-06-03T08:37:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.17.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.16.1","date":"2026-04-02T21:47:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.16.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.16.0","date":"2026-04-02T14:25:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.16.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.15.0","date":"2026-03-06T17:55:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.14.0","date":"2026-01-30T19:10:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.13.2","date":"2026-01-22T15:59:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.13.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.13.1","date":"2026-01-20T13:59:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.13.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.13.0","date":"2025-12-02T15:00:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.12.2","date":"2025-08-18T14:41:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.12.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.12.1","date":"2025-08-11T13:38:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.12.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.12.0","date":"2025-08-08T12:25:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.11.0.post1","date":"2025-07-09T16:49:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.11.0.post1"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.11.0","date":"2025-07-09T13:25:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.10.1","date":"2025-06-19T15:30:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.10.0","date":"2025-06-17T16:13:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.9.2","date":"2025-05-13T21:53:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.9.1.post1","date":"2025-05-10T01:54:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.1.post1"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.9.1","date":"2025-05-08T11:31:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/releases/tag/v0.9.0","date":"2025-04-28T22:24:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.9.0"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.10.0","date":"2026-08-13T01:36:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.9.2","date":"2026-07-28T10:39:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.9.1","date":"2026-07-26T16:49:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.9.0","date":"2026-07-21T20:36:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.8.0","date":"2026-07-09T18:41:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.7.1","date":"2026-07-04T04:05:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.7.0","date":"2026-06-25T22:52:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.6.0","date":"2026-06-11T22:00:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.5.1","date":"2026-05-27T15:26:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.5.0","date":"2026-05-25T15:33:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.4.0","date":"2026-05-09T00:01:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.3.0","date":"2026-04-26T15:40:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.2.0","date":"2026-04-17T01:13:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.1.0","date":"2026-04-12T02:15:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.0.0","date":"2026-03-31T14:15:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v1.0.0rc1","date":"2026-03-20T23:55:04Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.0.0rc1"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v0.29.1","date":"2026-03-20T03:57:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.29.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v0.29.0","date":"2026-02-25T22:38:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.29.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v0.28.0","date":"2026-02-10T13:28:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.28.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/huggingface/trl/releases/tag/v0.27.2","date":"2026-02-03T18:10:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.27.2"}]` |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=axolotl&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=trl&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Fine Tuning Platforms)

| Capability | Axolotl | TRL |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Architecture model | Open source library local GPU | Open source library local GPU |
| Peft lora and qlora parameter efficient tuning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rlhf and dpo preference alignment optimization | ✓ | ✓ |
| Serverless hosting of fine tuned adapters lorax | ✗ | - |
| Four bit and eight bit memory quantization | ✓ | ✓ |
| Flash attention and xformers compilation | ✓ | - |
| Distributed multi GPU orchestration fsdp deepspeed | ✓ | ✓ |
| Synthetic data generation and evaluation pipeline | ✗ | - |
| Native huggingface hub push pull integration | ✓ | - |
| Weights and biases wandb experiment tracking | ✗ | - |
| SOC2 type ii | ✗ | - |
| Mit or apache permissive oss license | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Free open source | Free open source |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:16:42.596Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*